Falling in Love and Other Complicated Things
by LoveLaughDanceWrite
Summary: After Angel. FAX, EGGY, Flock fun and action. While Dylan's vanished off the face of the Earth, Max finds herself falling for Fang again. And she still has to save the whole frickin' world…  Same story as before, just better summary!
1. Name Calling and Wet Bird Kids

**Author****'s Note: This is my first FanFiction, so be nice! Please review! Tell me what you think! Ideas are always appreciated! :D**

**DISCLAIMER: As great and James Patterson-like as I am, I do not own Maximum Ride. **

"So," I said to Fang, Ella, and Iggy, flapping my wings to keep aloft over the lake. "Let's do this!"

Let me tell you how things stand: First of all, to hell with the 'Saving the World' thing. A year ago, Fang'd finally convinced me to find a secluded spot, build an actual house_, _and settle down. The house was huge, in the middle of an inaccessible mountain range, and it was bombproof—from the inside out. I mean, I sure love my little pyros, but after all the time we'd spent trying to save the environment, I wasn't going to take a chance.

Dylan had dropped off the face of the earth, I'd snapped out of it, and Fang came to his senses. Now his little 'Flock' was somewhere 'Saving the World' while we got to kick back, relax, and sip coconut juice out of real coconuts. Like in the movies.

Well, not really. But anyways…

Fang regained Flock member-status and best friend-status, but not quite boyfriend status. And honestly, I could do without that kind of stress in my life. Those last couple of months had been much more boy-focused than I should've ever allowed. I mean, it's not like I'm gonna marry anyone _now_, no matter what Dr. Frankenstein likes to think.

On a happier note, we got Angel back after that unfortunate Paris incident… And Ella, too. She was living with us, now that she was genetically modified as well. Let's just say her run-in with the psychopaths that call themselves genetic scientists was less bumpy than Ari's—her wings were beautiful, black and white like a sparrow's, and they didn't hurt her. My mom didn't want to give up her clinic, so she lived in a small flat nearby and visited us often.

Also, there's been a lot of Eggy (Ella+Iggy) going around…That term _still_ cracks me up. Fang's blog readers came up with that one, tee-hee!

Anyways. Back to the present, a year after all of that. Except for the Eggy. That started just recently.

It was a Saturday, We have a sweet house with a mountain _lake_ right next door, only a short fly away. And that's where the whole Flock was then. We—by 'we' I mean Fang, 'Eggy' and I—were going to have a little competition. We had teams, the universal boys vs. girls. Whichever team got the whole other team in the lake first won. Wings allowed, of course.

The stakes? Name-calling rights for the rest of the day.

It all started with some PDA…

"_God, will you two stop sucking face already!" That'd be Gazzy, my ever-tactful mutant bird kid. Oh, and as if that's not enough, he was also a seriously committed pyro. _

_I know what you're thinking, and I'm already telling you—you're wrong. That comment was _not _in fact addressed to me and Fang. It was pointed at Iggy and Ella. _

"_Get a room!" he added. _

_Nudge just giggled. "Well, _I _think it's cute!" _

"_Too cute," Gazzy said, making gagging motions._

"_Hey, it could be worse," I said. I had to be tolerant—not only was I the leader, I'd been in the same position a year and a half ago. And though Iggy had been my main tormentor, I was going to show everyone that I was mature and that I could be forgiving and merciful. _

_Angel burst out laughing, hearing my thoughts. _

_Okay, so maybe not. _

"_Like how?" Gazzy asked, his voice clearly showing that he didn't believe me. _

"_Well, they could go around calling each other Elly-kins and Iggy-poo," Fang, who, I swear, is getting as bad as Nudge when it comes to talking, pointed out. _

Yeah. I know.

"You got it, Maxykins!" Iggy cackled manically, proceeding to dump his whole weight on me from above. I flapped hard, trying to stay up, the lake rushing towards me at alarming speeds. At the last minute, I managed to dump him off me and fly away. He didn't have a chance—he plunged into the lake water.

"One down, one to go!" Ella crowed, slapping a high-five with me. I had to laugh.

"Fangster, it's your turn!"

"Really, Max? Fangster?" Fang cocked his eyebrow. "Don't get ahead of yourself. You haven't won yet."

"I as good as won."

"Oh, yeah? And how's that?"

I gave him a smug look. "I showed up! And, okay, if you prefer, I can call you Fangalator," I conceded. He scowled good-naturedly. "Or Fangalicious." Some deranged fan had called him that in a comment… "And do you honestly thing you can take on the talented, awesome, kick-butt, show-no-mercy, et cetera, et cetera, Maximum Ride and her equally talented, awesome, kick-butt, show-no-mercy blood sister Ella Martinez single-handedly?"

"Are you kidding me? You are so full of it," he replied.

"If by 'it' you mean awesome, then yes, yes I am," I countered. "And anyways, since you're so confident, you're gonna let me and Ella consult to figure out the best way to kick your butt from here to next Thursday."

He rolled his eyes and waved us away, but he muttered something that sounded suspiciously like, "Not a chance."

With a couple of hard downstrokes, Ella and I were up by a couple hundred feet. Flying side by side, we tried to figure out what we should do. Fang was definitely not going to be as careless as Iggy. He was actually going to have a plan.

"So whadda we do?" Ella asked.

"I—" the words were torn from my lips when _something_ grabbed me around the waist and I started plummeting. Almost immediately, though, I understood what was happening. Years of running, hiding, and fighting just do that to ya.

"Fang, I'm gonna _murder _you!" I managed to scream. I could hear him chuckling behind me. One of his arms was snaked around my middle, the other one holding onto my wings so that I couldn't escape.

I made various other threats, from locking him in a room with Nudge while she was on a sugar high to giving him the Beiber cut and dying his hair blonde in his sleep, but somehow I could tell they weren't having much of an effect on him. And then, the short ten-thousand-foot drop was over and we plunged into the icy water.

It was only because of my bird-kid genes that I didn't go splat—it _is_ true, what they say about water being like concrete if you drop from a certain height. But by the

time I resurfaced, I knew I had him.

"Get ready for an afternoon of utter humiliation, Fangy-poo and Iggy-kins!" I crowed. See, what Fang had overseen in his simply _brilliant _plan was that by grabbing me that way, he had to sacrifice himself to make me actually get into the water. And, unfortunately for him, (but rather fortunately for me and Ella) neither me nor Ella was a boy. And this was a boys vs. girls game.

"Fang, man!" Iggy swam over to Fang and knocked on his forehead. "What were you _thinking_?"

"Probably nothing," I answered for him with a smirk. He just rolled his eyes in response.

"I'm rolling my eyes, Ig," he said.

Ah, all in a day's work. Chuckling, I said (as loudly as I could, so the kids could hear), "Igster, Fangalicious! Let's get outta here!"

**So? You like? I hope so! Just press that nice blue button called "Review Chapter" down there to show me how much you appreciate me! There's more where that came from, too-I already have 13 chapters! But if I think you don't like me, I won't post…So press that button!**


	2. Still Gotta Save the Frickin' World

**Author****'s Note: Okay, so the thrill of posting got to me. I posted this chapter right after the first one! REVIEW, people, for Pete's sake! **

**DISCLAIMER: I'm tearing up even as I write this, but I'm sorry to say-I do not own any of these characters. Just the plot! :D**

I sighed unhappily, leaning against the couch.

We were back home, eating a homemade TV dinner (courtesy of the Igster, tee-hee). I was sitting on the floor, my back pressed against the foot of the couch, my plate in my hands. And okay, it'd been fun while it lasted. But now, an all-too-well known melancholic feeling overtook me.

Fang heard me sigh and sat down next to me. It was just like the old days, the pre-Angel-captured but post-School days, when Fang and I were best friends. He was my right-wing man, he had my back. He was the one I could trust when I could trust no one. He was the one I could always count on to pick up my thoughts without speaking—and without creepy Angel mind-reading. And he still was now.

"What's up?" he asked me.

I leaned my head back against the couch, then turned it so I was looking at him. "I feel like I should be out there, you know?"

He nodded silently. He knew exactly what I was thinking—that _I _should be out there now, saving the world. But I couldn't leave the kids, and I couldn't suck them into that again.

"It's only 'cuz that's how they want you to feel," he finally said. "That's what they made you for." I flinched at the words, but I knew he was right.

"But it doesn't make _sense_. Why would the School, a branch of Itex, make me to destroy Itex? It's been bugging me."

He nodded again. "I know."

Okay, fine. So maybe Fang wasn't getting as bad as Nudge when it came to the talking thing.

"I still gotta find out."

Fang thought it over for a while, then said, "Jeb?"

I scowled. "Thanks. You're truly a man of many words."

He gave me a ghost of a smile, saying, "I try."

"We don't even know if Jeb's still alive, though. I haven't seen him for, like, two years! And, to be honest with you, I don't really want to see him again…"

"You can ask your mom." Yeah, my mom would probably know something…

"This is so pointless. I thought I was supposed to not do this anymore," I said.

Fang softened and said, "Max, if you've gotta do it, you and I both know that there's nothing anyone can do to stop you. Not even you."

"True." I rolled my head back against the couch. "Whatever. I'm gonna give it a rest and 'live a little'." It was Nudge's favorite thing of accusing me—that I wasn't 'living' enough.

I got up and practically threw my plate in the sink, trying to pretend that there was nothing wrong. The truth was, though, that I'd been thinking about saving the world a _lot_ lately, fruitlessly.

_You__'ve been designed to save the world. It's your life mission, _the Voice piped up helpfully.

I almost jumped out of my skin. I hadn't heard the Voice for almost the whole of the past year!

_Voice? What are you doing, back? _Of course, with my life, even this surprise wasn't as surprising as it should've been. _Thought you were on vacation. Like, forever. _

As always, I couldn't tell whether it was male or female, happy or exasperated, good or evil. And, as always, it didn't reply.

The Voice was another thing I had to figure out. While most of my relationships were more-or-less back to normal, really, my life wasn't.

I still had to save the whole frickin' world.

**Go! Go! Go! Press the nice shiny button! :D**


	3. Meeting with Jeb, Part UN

**So, last night I was checking my email and I got a notice that I had 2 reviews! I know that****'s, like, nothing, but I was so thrilled that two people said that they liked it and that I should keep going…It seriously made my day.**

**Okay, so that last chapter was really short, and I'm sorry for that, but this one's pretty short too. When I have short chapters I'll post a couple at a time. Read. Review. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I love Maximum Ride with all my heart, therefore it breaks at the fact that I do not own it. **

I tracked Jeb down, through my mom. She gave me an address, which I followed. Fang and Ella had insisted on coming with me, and if Ella was coming, then of course Iggy had to come too. I mean, he put the "-ggy" in "Eggy".

So that Eggy could stay Eggy and wouldn't have to become 'E' or 'ggy' (that's right, _lowercase _G. Oh, the horror!), I suggested they both stay home with the kids. I knew for sure that I couldn't leave them all under Nudge's supervision—I mean, she _is_ thirteen, but that's hardly old enough to look after a very committed ten-year-old pyro and a creepy mind-reading/mind-controlling eight-year-old alone. Then again, the results would be practically the same—Eggy would probably be sucking face, or Iggy'd be helping Gazzy with their newest explosive.

Yep, we're a merry band of mutants. All shapes, sizes, colors, and talents, I tell you.

Now Fang and I were at the place my mom had given us the address to. And my only thought was, _What was she _thinking_?_

We were standing in front of a yard, filled with long, low buildings. Whitewashed buildings, with barely any windows. The buildings were behind a tall chain link fence, no doubt with electricity coursing through it. The fence had barbed wire at the top.

Trying to ignore the instinctive clenching in my stomach, I said, "Well, now or never…"

I wasn't the only one stressed. I could see Fang's jaw tightening—he recognized the place as much as I did. Not _this_ specific place; I was pretty sure we'd never been _here_ before. But there was no doubt in my mind that it was a lab.

But my mom had assured us it was safe… And anyways, if we saw any danger we could fly away.

She must've told Jeb we were coming. The gates opened silently as we approached them, letting us into the complex. Two armed guards seamlessly fell into step with us, leading us to the main door. From there, two other armed guards took over. They weren't holding us captive, for once, and I decided it was an improvement.

If I'd thought I was nervous just looking at the buildings, it got a thousand times worse inside. Everything was white—too clean. The smell of antiseptic and latex gloves was almost overpowering, permeating the air. Through open doors I could see labs, test tubes, and the worst—dog crates. I uneasily plastered my wings against my back, hoping no one would notice their bulk and decide that _I_ belonged in a dog crate.

"I'm gonna hurl," I managed to choke out to Fang. The guards didn't even bat an eye.

Yeah, yeah, I can almost hear you skeptics in there, thinking, _Isn't she overreacting just a little?_ Uh, _no_. Trust me, if you grew up in a lab, with whitecoats experimenting on you, making you sick, and trying to kill you every other day, you'd never want to come back again.

Without even thinking about it, I reached out and grabbed Fang's hand. He took it, understanding what I was feeling. He was feeling it too. He didn't show it, but I could see it in his eyes.

"You're gonna have no circulation left by the time this is over," I tried to joke, and his lip twitched. But he didn't say anything.

The guards opened a door and let us into the room. It was an office, not a lab, thank God. It was Jeb's office.

"Max! Sweetheart!" Jeb exclaimed, standing up from behind his desk. He came over to hug me, but I stuck out my hand. So much with trying to be 'mature' and 'forgiving'.

Jeb took it without so much as blinking. "Fang." Jeb nodded in his direction. Fang didn't even give a twitch of acknowledgement.

"Jeb, what are you doing in a _lab_? I thought you'd put those days behind you," I started, in a very rude voice, might I add.

Something flashed across his eyes. "I'm trying to save the world, since you _gave up_," he said. A minute into this meeting and I was already grinding my teeth—Jeb knew that even the implication that I'd given up would power me to get to work again.

"I didn't _give up_. I did what was best for the kids," I told him. "They're important too, you know."

"As important as the whole world? Max, thousands of lives for six?"

"Not that you had any qualms about sacrificing lives when you killed your own son," I say through clenched teeth.

The second I said it, I knew I'd hit below the belt. I kinda felt like apologizing, not that I was going to. Ari had died when he was _seven_. And that was all Jeb's fault.

I also realized that I was still holding Fang's hand in a death grip. I let go, a little self-consciously.

"And anyways, you've been talking about saving the world to me for the past two years, but not once have you actually told me what's going on. You said that I was created to save the world. Who do I have to save the world _from_? You said Itex. But who created me? Itex! Tell me, how does that make any sense?"

Jeb had that look in his eyes. The one that meant he clearly knew he had me. He chuckled softly, and it occurred to me that behind the cool, composed mask hid a complete maniac.

"You must've misunderstood me, sweetheart. You're not meant to save the world _from_ Itex. You're supposed to save the world _for_ Itex."

**Ooooh, cliffhanger! I swear, if you don****'t press that "Review Chapter" button, I will not post any more and you will be tortured for the rest of your life by the fact that you do not know what happens next. I know I said that I would post more than one chapter since it's a short one, but I will withhold chapter 4 from you right now. REVIEW! And the saddest thing is, I've already written chapters 4-15, and you may never get to see them if you don't press that button…Alas! **

**Okay, done with superlong "convince-you-to-press-that-frickin'-button" note now! :D**


	4. Meeting with Jeb, Part DEUX

**Author****'s Note: Well, I decided to be a good person and posted! To show your appreciation, REVIEW! :D**

**Disclaimer: I no owny Maxy Ridey. :(**

Oh. Well then!

I put my hand on my hip and cocked an eyebrow. "So either Itex is good—" pfft, yeah, right "—or we're evil." And by 'we', I meant the Flock, not Itex.

Jeb ignored my comment. "Itex needs to control the world. But we can't take control of this broken world. So we need to fix it—save it, if you will—before we can take over."

Why did that sound so…_familiar_?

"I am up to _here_ with megalomaniacs like you," I snarled at him, anger bubbling up under my surface. "Why can't you people just leave me alone to live my freaking _life_?"

"Maximum," Jeb said, "Your life _is_ saving the world. After that, your life is over."

"Ah. So I do your dirty work, and then you kill me. Is that it?"

"Not quite. Once the world is saved, you expire," he replied.

How _wonderful_.

"And how exactly will you accomplish that?" I asked, practically growling.

"It's like you're a ticking time bomb. As soon as your work is done, we can set it off," Jeb explained.

"What if I don't? Save the world, I mean?"

Jeb smiled a sad little smile, but the sadness didn't reach his eyes. He was a freaking lying manipulator who should've disappeared off the face of the earth. Like Dylan! Speaking of…

"And what happened to Dylan?" I felt Fang stiffen even more at my side.

"First of all," the monster said, "If you don't do what you were designed to do, you can just…ehm… retire right now." It would've scared me more if I hadn't been threatened with immediate death so many times in my life—and escaped. I mean, I'm still alive.

"Second of all," the evil megalomaniac who contributed to half of my test-tube concoction continued, "Dylan failed his assignment. As you know, the Director does not tolerate failure. He was retired." Oh. I felt sort of bad for him. I mean, it was _my_ fault he 'failed'… I felt bad, but I wasn't going to miss him, with his puppy-dog smile and his 'Oh-Max-I-love-you-unconditionally'-ness.

I rolled my eyes. "The Director's in jail." I should know. I'd put her there.

"We have a new one." Of course they do!

Tensions were running high—I was pissed at Jeb, Jeb was practically biting his nails in frustration (what can I say? I usually have that effect on evil megalomaniac whitecoats) and Fang was stiffly and silently radiating anger.

In other words, it was time to make like a banana and split.

"Well, it's been a pleasure chatting with you," I said briskly. "But Fang and I have to go now."

"I think not."

I'd expected it. They had us—they weren't going to let us go. I reached over and tapped the back of Fang's hand; it meant _Outta here. Now_.

We burst through the doors. Of course, the guards were immediately onto us like… Ants on a dropped cookie. Sure. But we weren't genetically enhanced for nothing. We easily made it past them and out into the open air.

Outside, it was even more dangerous that inside. In the buildings, they couldn't risk firing their guns and destroying the experiments. Out here, though, there were no limitations.

Fang and I wasted a couple of precious seconds, getting our windbreakers off and unfurling our wings. I barely had enough time to pray that there wasn't an electrocuted net strung between the buildings and the gate (see Book 3). Thank God there wasn't.

Gunfire echoed on the ground, bullets whizzed past our ears, the whole old spiel. But nothing hit us, and within a minute we were out of range.

Once we were ten thousand feet up—a decent flying height—I flew closer to Fang so we could talk.

"What did you make of that?" I asked.

"I think it doesn't make sense. You know how all those times they wanted to 'eliminate' us or whatever, 'cuz all of the experiments were being 'retired'?" Fang said. "They could've just activated the expiration and you would've been dead. Either Jeb somehow convinced them not to, which is hard to believe, or he was lying."

"You are positively becoming a chatterbox," I said, grinning. He rolled his eyes, but he had a smile on his face too.

"You know, Jeb's changed a lot in the past year," I continued. "It's kinda weird. Any hunches?"

Fang thought about it for a while, then answered, "Either he's faking it this time around or he's finally revealing his true colors."

I sighed. "With him, it's impossible to tell."

**H****ope you liked it! (Hint hint wink wink nudge nudge cough cough THE BUTTON'S RIGHT THERE!) I know it's kinda short, but I'll post more. **


	5. School's Back IN

**Author****'s Note: Sooooo… Read, review and enjoy!**

Well, that settled it.

Dinner was no longer brought to us by Chef Iggy, it was brought to us by Eggy.

I can't say it was bad. Ella's a pretty good cook. I was just cracking up about it.

For almost the past two years, Ella'd been talking to me about how 'sweet' and 'handsome' Iggy was. On one wing, it was pretty cute. On the other, it felt like she was talking about my son, which is creepy, since Iggy isn't my son or even younger than me.

And make no mistake, I could see how the boy was looking at her too. Well, not really looking, but… It was obviously two-sided. They were just too pig-headed and stubborn to get together. It was sort of funny, how everyone could see it but them.

_You and Fang are pretty pig-headed and stubborn too,_ I heard a little voice in my head. No, not the Voice, unfortunately for one little blonde-haired eight-year-old.

_Angel? We are not talking about this. _

_You still love each other,_ she insisted.

_I love _everyone_, sweetie. Okay?_

_That's not what I mean, Max. You know it's not. _

_Angel, we are not talking about it,_ I thought at her firmly. The 'Romantic Drama' section of my life was officially closed, and nothing that little imp told me was going to change that.

_Whatever, Max, _I heard her sigh in my head.

And yet, something in my was dying to analyze every little sentence she'd said to me. I'd been thinking about how pig-headed and stubborn Ella and Iggy had been not to get together. And Angel said that Fang and I were pig-headed and stubborn too. That didn't mean anything, though… And then—'You still love each other'. That would mean that it's two-sided…

I stopped myself before I could get too carried away. No. I was not going back there again. There had been way too much drama with the romance. I wouldn't mind, if it were just simple and normal and not "Oh look, Fang and Max like each other, let's get all the forces of nature to try to make it hard for them". 'Cuz in my life, that's how it is.

I stopped thinking at all and just ate. Then, out of the blue, Fang caught my eye and smiled. _Oh, God. _A very attractive shade of red flushed my cheeks and I looked down.

Later, when we were just chilling—Gazzy with his bombs, Angel with a book, Nudge with her fashion mags, Eggy with their PDA, Fang with the laptop and me with an iPod, Nudge took a break from her intense reading to come up to me.

"Max, what if we went to school this fall?"

Great. This again. "I mean," Nudge continued, "Since we're not bothering with the 'Saving the World' thing, we could go to school, and learn stuff, and be normal, and have friends and homework and tests and report cards and stuff, like normal kids. And I'd keep my wings tucked in, I promise, and I wouldn't fail or anything. You know, it's free, 'cuz it's public school, and you know I wouldn't do drugs or anything, so could we…" Nudge was thirteen. That didn't mean her motormouth had slowed down at all.

Ella looked up from something she and Iggy were looking at. "Yeah, I kinda miss school. It's actually what I miss most from normal life, you know, without wings." She shook her pretty black-and-white wings out a bit.

"Wherever you go, I shall follow," Iggy said in a breathy, theatrical voice. I rolled my eyes. Gazzy chucked a screwdriver at him.

"In a normal situation, Gazzy, that would _not_ be allowed," I said. Gazzy dropped his head guiltily. "However, this is not a normal situation. I'm actually going to thank you for that." He looked so happy that I had to add, "Just don't do it again!"

"Okay, so who wants to go to school?" I asked, knowing I was going to regret it. Schools were _not_ my places. Schools were places with lots of kids, crowds, traitors, science labs, and girls with long red hair.

Girls with long red hair? What was I _thinking_? Never mind. I don't want an answer to that.

Anyways, schools were places with all of the components that made me twitchy. _Including _the girls with long, red hair. _I did not like schools_. But Ella and Nudge already had their hands raised. Somehow Iggy knew that Ella's hand was up because he raised his hand too. Angel almost immediately agreed, bobbing up and down in excitement. Gazzy shrugged. Fang and I were the only ones who looked uncomfortable with the decision.

Just when I started saying 'Okay', Angel piped up. "Max, if you really don't want to, you can stay home and do school online."

Everyone responded with positive answers—just as long as _they_ could go to school.

"Fine. But a couple of basic rules. First of all, _no explosives_." I looked at my lovable pyro duo, who nodded. "Second rule: No kissing behind the bleachers. Or anywhere else." That was directed mostly at Eggy, but partially at Nudge, too. "No showing wings. No drugs, bulimia, drinking, or cutting yourself, no matter how 'cool' it is. Act like a normal, happy, healthy kid. Also, if you don't get at least a C-, I will personally go over there and kick your butt to next week. Got it?"

The all laughed, smiled, hugged me, told me how much they loved me, et cetera, et cetera.

"I'll make a call to the school," I said weakly.

I was standing by the phone, dialing the number, when I felt pinpricks on the back of my neck. I whirled around. It was Fang, standing in the doorway of the kitchen.

"If it makes you feel any better, I don't want to go to school either," he said. "I'll stay home with you."

"Thanks," I said, already grinning. Hope surged through me as I dialed the number.

He was going to stay with me.

**Okay, so DON****'T press that Review button! (If you are anything like Max, people not wanting you to do something will get you to do something—so you'll press that button! Haha, I'm so smart! :D)**


	6. Rollerblading and a Coffee Date

**Author's Note: For fans of Fax (Fang+Max) this is where it starts! Kinda. If you have any ideas, by now you should know where the review button is! :D**

**Disclaimer: Yeah, yeah, you know the drill. I do not own Maximum Ride. James Patterson does. **

"Woe to me! The last day of freedom is upon us!" Gazzy wailed.

"Let's do something _fun_ today," Angel suggested, happily punching her brother in the arm. He punched her back. I looked away before I had to witness the sibling scuffle.

"Like?" I prompted.

It was the last day before school started, and Gazzy was getting less and less enthusiastic about the idea. He was going to go, though, because he preferred normal school to Max's Home School. I'd made sure of that!

"Let's go rollerblading!" Nudge squealed. Rollerblading? We hadn't been rollerblading since the E-shaped house in Colorado. Jeb had taken us once…

Choruses of "Yeah!" and "All right!" and "I know a place…." and "Let's do it!" wove through the flock of excited bird kids (Get it? Flock, like crowd? Bird kids? Oh, stop looking at me like that, Fang, I know it's a lame joke!).

"You guys wanna go to a rink or park?" I asked.

"Well, you can't rent 'blades at the park," Ella said reasonably. "Let's go to the RolleRink."

"Yeah!" Nudge yelled excitedly. "I saw a commercial for them on TV once! It is so so so cool! They have ramps and cool stuff like that and if you pay enough money you can take a class and they teach you tricks and stuff! Please, Max, pretty please can we go? And isn't that a cool name, RolleRink? I think it is. It's like Roller Rink, but together! They make the last R of Roller the first R of Rink! Ah! That's so smart! It's like Will I Am being William but it's like Will I Am, or like I Am Will! And—oh, no, do you think it's going to rain? Oh, it doesn't matter, it's inside anyways! Well! Let's go!"

That's Nudge for ya—she can go from RolleRink to Will I Am in two sentences.

"Okay, we can go," I agreed, but I knew I was going to be twitchy and nervous and paranoid during the whole thing. Call me a couch potato, but I'd really rather just sit at home and do _nothing_ all day… "Who knows the way?"

No one did, so Fang Googled it and came up with directions. I memorized them quickly and we were off.

Usually, there are two people who are as twitchy and paranoid as me: Fang and Iggy—especially Iggy, what with his blindness and all. But now, Iggy's in La La Land (or, should I say, _Ella_ Land, tee-hee) and Fang's really good at hiding his emotions, so I'm the only one who looks like a nervous freak.

Even though I'd told her countless times not to, my mom usually sent us some money every once in a while. With that money I paid for seven pairs of rollerblades and we went off to get fitted.

There wasn't much of a crowd, so maybe I could enjoy myself. Either way, I knew my wings would be plastered flat against my back and that they'd be sore tomorrow. I got my rollerblades and waited for the rest of the Flock to leave the room before I left myself.

Once out on the rink floor, I discovered that I really could _not_ rollerblade. Nudge was a pro, Angel was wobbly but managing, Iggy was somehow skating backwards, leading Ella by the hands like in all of those cheesy movies, even though he's the _blind _one, and Gazzy was nowhere to be seen. Fang stood right next to me as I surveyed the rink.

"Remember last time, Jeb took us skating?" I asked, and he gave a wide grin. "God, I couldn't skate at _all_! Remember, I was falling, and I thought my wings could save me, but they were trapped in my sweatshirt? I looked like a pancake!"

I laughed at the memory. That had been pretty funny… But it wasn't now, as I struggled to move on the tiny wheels.

Twenty minutes later I was in a terrible mood. "Whoever invented rollerblades should be shot, resurrected, hanged, resurrected again, and shot again," I grumbled. And then, on top of it all, I could hear it pouring outside. "Great. _And_ we're stuck here, 'cuz it's, like, hailing!"

Fang shrugged. "It's a downpour, but it'll be over quickly. How 'bout rounding the kids up and getting pizza?"

"How much money do we have?" I asked.

He counted it. "Fifty bucks."

"M'kay. Let's go."

Reluctantly, we started 'blading again. At one point, just before we reached Nudge, I somehow tripped over the stupid wheels and ended up crashing into Fang. He caught me and let me catch my balance again.

"Sorry!" I said, mortified. I could already feel that red blush coming to my cheeks.

"You okay?"

"Yeah." Rollerblading is _so_ not a Max thing.

We finally got to Nudge, but she refused to leave yet. "Max, it's waaaaay too early! We just got here! It's only been, like, five minutes!" Both of us knew she was exaggerating.

"Nudge…"

"Just a little more? Please?" she pleaded, giving me the Bambi eyes.

Curse those Bambi eyes! The fate of their inventor was going to be a thousand times worse then the fate of the inventor of rollerblades.

"Fine," I said. "I'll be…around."

Nudge squealed and started rollerblading superspeed, just to rub it in my face. No, not really, but I was in such a bad mood that it felt that way. I started making my way towards the gate out of the rink.

I was taking off the stupid roller blades and putting them back.

I sat down on a pouf, yanking the stupid thing off my foot. I took the other one off and stalked to the fitting room, plopping them down on the counter and retrieving my good ol' sneakers. I put them on and walked back to the rink area in a significantly better mood.

"Hey," Fang caught up with me. I gave him a genuine smile.

"Whazzup?"

"I was just thinking…" he trailed off. "Why don't we grab a coffee or something? There's a Starbucks across the street."

"I thought the kids didn't want to leave," I said.

"They don't. Just us."

Let's take a pause here and dissect Max's thoughts in detail. A month ago—heck, even a week ago—I would've been like, "Yeah, sure," and wouldn't have given it a second thought. Maybe it had something to do with what Angel had said, or maybe it was just me, but I was suddenly hyperaware of everything Fang did.

Which caused me to moronically blurt out, "Is this a _date_?"

His lips did that half-quirk thing. "Only if you want it to be."

I felt like saying something snappy, like, "You've been breathing next to Gazzy for too long," or "Where's Angel? I gotta give her another lecture on mind-control," but I didn't. I knew from experience that it would just hurt us both.

Instead, I took a deep breath and, choosing the most diplomatic answer that wouldn't actually answer the 'Is This A Date' question, I said, "Okay then. Let's go."

**If you like Fax, this is only the beginning! :D I'm gonna try a new tactic here: **

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	7. Falling Hard and Fast

**Author's Note: ****I am so moronically touched by the mere 6 reviews I have! I've already posted today, but I just checked the reviews and someone wrote that they want more. They even said please! So before I log out I will give you chapter 7, even though I am supposed to post gradually so you guys have to only wait, say, a week before I post again instead of, say, a month. But I'm usually pretty good about writing, especially if I like the story (which I do!), so have no fears!**

**I know the chapters are kinda short, but that's why I post a couple at a time! :D Hope you like 'em anyways! **

**Disclaimer: As much as I'm following JP's footsteps and becoming the greatest American writer of the century, I am unfortunately not the owner of Maximum Ride.**

It was a bright, starry night. The full moon shone and lit my way as I flew towards the house. It was only around eleven o'clock, but with the days getting shorter all the time, it was already pitch black.

I landed on our little deck, my sneakers pounding to a stop. I hated the circumstances, but I _loved_ my wings. They were tawny, speckled with brown and white shades. Instead of tucking them into my back and heading inside, I let them hang loosely for a while as I sat on the railing of the deck.

I can hear y'all going, "Oh my _gosh_, Max! That's so _dangerous_! Weren't you scared?" But, if you are thinking that, you are overlooking the fact that I have _wings_ (Hello? Are you paying any attention at all? I was just talking about them!) and that if I did happen to fall—or if, say, Gazzy pushed me—I could just fly away. Like I said: Hate how I got 'em. Love that I have 'em.

I heard the door sliding open behind me, and I turned my head to see who it was. Angel, Nudge, Fang and Gazzy joined me on the railing. Lucky me, I got smushed between Nudge and Fang.

Fang also released his wing muscles so that his coal-black wings could relax for once. See, the wings are awesome, but usually we have to hold the muscles all day so that they lay flat against our backs. We also have to cut huge slits in our clothes so that we can let them through. It's just kinda weird, keeping our wings under our clothes. We have some coats with slits and some without, for the public.

"Where's Eggy?" I shifted a little so I was looking at Fang. His wings brushed mine and I had to fight that blush that kept coming up for some reason.

He rolled his eyes good-naturedly. "Probably getting their face-time somewhere."

Gazzy piped up, "You know, they should get iPhones."

I had time to think, _Oh, boy,_ before Nudge asked, "Why?"

"Because there's this new app, called Face Time!" Ha-ha.

"Oh, I get it! Face Time! But it's actually a video call app, it's not like a making-out app. That'd be sorta weird, an app for making out, don't you think? I wouldn't use it, it would sort of creep me out. I mean, "Nudge, what're you doing?" "Oh, just practicing my kissing on my iPhone," don't you think that's kinda weird?" Yep. Nudge channel, _all_ the time.

So we sat there, having a sort of 'Flock quality time', sitting on the deck and chatting about this, that, and nothing in particular. Then I accidentally looked at my watch and saw that it was past midnight.

"Hey, guys!" I said, a little alarmed. "It's twelve thirty! You have to go to bed!"

Of course, they grumbled and groaned, but I added, "I'll be right up too. I'm just going to wait out here for you guys to finish using the bathroom and stuff."

They rolled their eyes, but they filed inside. Angel teasingly thought in my head, _Ella and Iggy aren't the only ones who want their face-time!_

_Angel! _I thought back at her. _Inside. Shower. Now._

She giggled but skipped inside with everyone else. _You know it's true!_

No, I don't. 'Course it's not true! What does she think, that me and Fang secretly make out after they all go to bed? Riiiiiiight.

When they were gone, I started shivering. It's one thing to stay outside through the middle of the night with a blob of warm feathered heat-sources—uh, I mean, children—but it's another just to sit with one person on one side.

Fang noticed me shivering and stretched out one of his wings so it was like a big feathery radiator behind my back, and I didn't even think twice—I almost-subconsciously scooted closer to him. I left my wings open, but I brought them in closer to my back, so they were an additional heat source.

"'Sup?" I asked.

He shrugged. I swear, the boy is gonna be, like, a public speaker when he gets older. Or a writer. He's just so _wordy_! (I hope you could hear the sarcasm in that.)

"Nice night for flying," I said.

"Yeah," he replied. "Wanna go?"

"Flying? Or inside?"

He rolled his eyes again. "What do you think?"

I rolled my eyes right back at him. "I'll go get a sweatshirt. I'll be right back."

I picked a thick black hoodie, stuffed it over my head and forced my wings through the slits I'd made with a kitchen knife a while ago. I shook 'em out a little, soothing frazzled feathers, then made my way back to the deck.

"Let's go," I said, vaguely wondering whether this could be considered a 'date'. Not that I was actually gonna ask again.

We climbed up onto the railing and, once again, I took off into the night. Except this time, I wasn't alone.

We wove through the dark, laughing, pulling a trick every once in a while. Like, once, Fang hid behind a tree and then grabbed my unsuspecting wings. It was a Flock trick we often pulled on each other. Or another time, when I was flying above Fang, I plopped down on his back, behind the wings, and wouldn't get off. He finally had to roll over midair to get rid of me.

We went back probably an hour later. I landed neatly on the railing (though I fell off a second later) and Fang crashed onto the deck.

"That was fun," he said, and he started leaning into me. I think we both know why. I swear, my brain just shorted out. I was paralyzed. I couldn't think. When he was just an inch from my face, I said, "Well, I'm gonna go shower," and bolted upstairs.

_Crap, _was all I could think. He'd tried to kiss me! I was feeling terrified and giddy at the same time, and, with another thought of _Crap,_ I realized I knew the feeling.

"I'm falling for him again," I moaned out loud, collapsing onto my bed. "Falling hard and fast."

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	8. The Lake Date

**Author's Note: Fax fans, you are gonna LOVE this chapter! Personally, it's one of my favorites. Enjoy! **

**Disclaimer: James Patterson is going to leave Maximum Ride to me in his will, but since he's not dead yet, I do not (yet) own Maximum Ride. (Kidding, overreactive readers!)**

"It's still bugging me, you know," I said as Fang finished hacking into the online homeschool's website. Of course we weren't actually going to do the work. We were going to download all of the answers onto Fang's 8G thumb drive and fill them in when we needed to. All we had to do was not think about it around Angel and we'd be fine.

"That might've been his point," he replied. He didn't give any indication that anything might've happened a week ago, on the deck.

"What?"

"Jeb told you Itex was evil and that they created you to do their work for them. Wouldn't that be like reverse psychology? You know, to get you to destroy Itex?"

"Even if it was, how the heck am I supposed to do anything? I mean, okay, I'm smart, beautiful, amazing, _winged_," I ruffled my feathers a little to make the point, "But I'm still just one girl. Even with the Flock, it's not like we can go in there and blow the place up. They'd be back in a couple of years."

Fang pressed the ENTER button on the keyboard. "Well, at least that's done," he said. "And honestly, Max, I know it's pretty much impossible for you, but I think you should just stop worrying about it."

I sighed. "I _can't_," I said, barely whispering. "I don't think I know how."

He didn't do anything dramatic, like sweep me up into his arms and kiss me or anything. Not that that'd be bad… I mean, of course it would be bad! I don't even _like_ him like that! Seriously. I _don't_. At least, I'd been trying to talk myself out of it.

Anyways, he said, "Try. It might be easier than you think."

_Max, I forbid you to stop saving the world,_ I heard the familiar Voice in my head. I almost laughed.

"Yeah, 'cuz forbidding me worked so well when I was getting my chip out," I said out loud. Fang didn't even look at me funny. He knew me too well.

"Voice?" he asked calmly. When I nodded, he said, "What'd it want?"

"It 'forbade me to stop saving the world'," I said in a bossy English accent. Even though, you know, the Voice doesn't have an English accent. That I know of. "Now I know I'm doing the right thing. It 'forbade' me to take my chip out too."

Fang nodded. "Good."

I flipped my arm over, looking at the two scars—the long, red, raised one that had healed badly, and the thin white one, half an inch long. "That was pretty stupid of me," I observed, thinking back to the beach.

"No kidding," Fang snorted. "You scared me half to death."

"Only half? What, I'm not worth a whole death?" I teased. He rolled his eyes, but he was smiling.

"Let's do something," I changed the subject. "Wanna go somewhere?"

"Is that a date?"

Oh, God. I could already feel the flush creeping up to my cheeks. I had _so_ not meant it that way!

"If you want it to be," I mumbled. It was safer to stick with his answer from the rollerblading place than to come up with a reply of my own.

Unlike me, though, he didn't choose something diplomatic and neutral to say to that. "It's a date, then."

Oh, God.

"So, where we going?" Fang asked.

I rolled my eyes, trying to get my bravado back. Chucking a decorative pillow (Nudge _insisted_ on them) at him, I said, "You're the man, you tell me."

He thought for a while, then said, "How about we go to the lake?"

I shrugged. "Sure. I'll be ready in ten."

In my room, I changed into my bathing suit and slipped my jeans and t-shirt over it. I refused to go over every minute of that conversation and wonder what could go on at the lake. I refused to! And yet I did anyways.

Nothing much had happened in the coffee shop. We'd gotten our coffee, talked and joked as usual, and made our way back to the RolleRink. And… He'd tried to kiss me. On the deck. Did I even like Fang in that way? Angel claimed I did… Something suddenly occurred to me:

Angel had never been wrong.

_Whatever_. I mentally rolled my eyes at myself and trotted down the stairs. Fang was already waiting.

We got to the lake pretty quickly. We cannonballed into the water, bird kid style—from, like, fifty feet up. And then Fang did something unforgivable.

He _splashed _me.

"I'm gonna _kill _you!" I yelled. When the Flock splash each other, we also do it bird-kid style: With the wings, man. It sends an avalanche of water the target's way.

Speaking of… "Oh, I still have to kill you for that little spiel last time," I reminded him. I was talking about the name-calling contest, when I'd threatened to kill him too. I couldn't make empty threats—it would lose me my credibility!

Tucking my wings in tight, I swam after him. He let me come ridiculously close before he started swimming away. I caught him easily.

"You enjoy getting beat by a girl, Fangykins?" I asked him. He scowled. "'Cuz you're gonna see a lot more where that came from."

I dunked his head under. I knew it wouldn't hurt him and that, in fact, he could breathe just fine, thanks to his _gills_. Yeah, that's right. Gills.

He grabbed me by the waist and dragged me under too. I kicked and squealed, but try as I might, he wouldn't let go. _Not that I wanted him to_, a little part of my mind thought. _Shut up,_ the other, more/less rational (depending on how you look at it) part said.

He dragged me down to his level, so that we were face-to-face. My hands were on his shoulders, and I was trying to push myself up towards the surface, even though I could breathe perfectly fine underwater as well.

And suddenly, Fang's lips were on mine and he was kissing me…underwater!

Oh, my dear sweet Lord.

I couldn't breathe, I couldn't think…but in a good way. I think. I didn't know what my hands were doing anymore. I stopped struggling against him, but I didn't kiss him back.

He released me, and we floated towards the surface. I gasped for breath, even though technically I'd been breathing all along.

"I, uh, I have to think about this," I said, ever so gracefully.

The hurt in his eyes was unmistakable. I made one of my famous snap decisions:

I wrapped my arms around Fang's neck. And I kissed him like I'd never kissed anyone ever before.

**Was that great or was that great? There's only ONE way to let me know…. Press that button!**


	9. What If They Were THIS Big?

**Author****'s Note: This is a really funny story, actually based on a sorta true story. Minus the wings: Me and my friend were asking these questions about wings, cuz when we were reading MR my science teacher said it would be impossible for a human to have wings, and my friend and I were exchanging looks all class long… And then we printed an anime of Max offline and showed it to her and were like, "Could SHE fly?" Anyways, enjoy! **

**Dedication: Banana, this is for you! (Disregard this if you do not understand!)**

**Disclaimer: Plot? Mine. Characters? Not so much. **

Wonderful. It was only, like, the third week of school and they were already in trouble.

What happened, you ask? Was Angel controlling minds to do evil? No. Was Gazzy caught blowing something up? As surprising as that seems, no. Did Nudge talk some poor teacher's head off? Actually, no. Were Ella and Iggy caught making out behind the Dumpster or something? You know what? _I wish_.

"Eggy! C'mere!" I called up the stairs. Iggy and Ella trotted down, rolling their eyes at me but coming nonetheless.

I had one hand on my hip, my no-nonsense expression on my face. An innocent little note was curled up in my other hand.

Innocent? Yeah, right. I was _seething mad_.

'E' and 'ggy' stopped at the same time, paling at the note in my hand.

"Can either of you tell me what this here is?" I asked, calmly, waving the note in their faces.

"Um, uh, no?" Ella squeaked.

"Convincing," I said.

"Is that what I think it is?" Iggy asked Ella quietly.

"Depends on what you think it is," I answered instead of her.

"Yeah," Ella told Iggy, sighing. "It is." Then she turned to me. "Max, I am so, so, so sorry! It was just so tempting, and we were watching a documentary on birds, and it was just too _tempting!_"

What did they manage to do this time? They showed their freaking wings to the freaking whole class in the freaking middle of the freaking school day! Don't let my calm outside demeanor fool you—I was so mad, I was going to burst at the seams.

"Let's sit down. Before the urge to strangle you two becomes too strong and I just can't resist it," I said through my teeth. They had the decency of looking guilty.

"So," I said, clenching and unclenching my fists, "Tell me exactly what happened."

They had a little mini-war about who was going to tell the story, and finally Ella said, "Fine, I'll do it." Then she launched into the most infuriating, and yet funny, story I've ever heard.

"Well, we were watching a documentary on birds, like I said. For science," she explained. "And there was this one part where they said that the bird's wings have to be big enough to carry their weight. Then the teacher paused the video to talk about it." Ella paused to smother a laughing fit. "God, it still makes me laugh every time I think about it."

"Even though you are in major trouble and I am going to, like, disown you and you are going to have to go into the Witness Protection Program if you ever want to show your face in public again and you are probably going to be kicked out of school and if you're not than everyone's gonna stare at you and you'll be circus freaks," I said. "But yeah, other than that, it's completely hilarious!"

They hung their heads. Fang must've heard the commotion because he came into the kitchen with a 'WTH?' look plastered on his face. I shoved the note at him without a word.

"Anyways, go on," I prompted.

"So, she was saying that if a hawk had tiny wings, it couldn't fly, and that's why if a human was to have wings, they'd have to be so huge it was probably physically impossible. So me and Iggy, we were sitting next to each other, so we like exchanged looks and we both raised our hands," she continued.

_Oh boy,_ I thought. _I do _not _like where this is going. _

"So these kids were asking stupid questions, like, "If I had wings _this_ big—" she made a motion with her hands, "—could I fly", and me and Iggy were like cracking up. It was sooooo funny! So then we both stood up together, and we took off our sweatshirts and spread our wings and went "What if we had wings _this_ big?" Oh, the looks on their faces were priceless!"

"Oh, my God, you two do not even _know _how much trouble you're in!" I said, but I was smiling. It _was_ a pretty funny story!

"Max, stop faking," Iggy said. "Even I, the poor helpless blind kid—" Yeah, poor helpless blind kid, my foot, "—can see that you're grinning from ear to ear. As loud and clear as I could see those faces in that classroom." He got up from the table and started doing a victory dance.

I looked at Fang, and he was grinning too. Fang, grinning? It must've _really_ amused him. I rolled my eyes at him and he shrugged. "You gotta admit, it is pretty funny."

"Okay, well," I said, relenting, "We'll try to figure out how to make all of those people, and all of the people they told, somehow forget about you and your wings. In the meantime, welcome to Max's Home School!"

**You like? ****:D You know what to do!**


	10. Evil RETURNS

**Author's Note: Evil is back! And some more Fax! :D Hope ya like it! **

**Disclaimer: Yadda yadda, Max, Fang, Eggy, Gazzy, Angel, ter Bocht, Ari, Jeb, Nudge, Total, Akila, Max's Home School, Dr. Martinez, **_**Mr. Martinez**_** (my Spanish teacher, tee-hee) ****et cetera…Not mine. **

**Bionic people? Yeah, those were my idea. Oh, and the plot. That too. **

I plopped down next to Fang on the couch. "Since Max's Home School population just doubled, thanks to Eggy's little stunt," I said, "We've got to let 'em in on the secret."

Fang gave me an unexpected half-smile, which sent that blush right up to my cheeks. Jeez, what is _up _with that lately?

"Or, to, you know, _punish_ them," he said suggestively, "We could 'get up early' and 'have all the work done' before they even start."

He knew me too well. Sometimes I don't know whether that's a good thing, since he can just convince me to do evil stuff so easily. But the idea of revenge was just too sweet for me to resist.

"You had me at 'punish'," I said.

He made a smug face. "I had you from the start."

_Are we still talking about Home School?_ Some part of me wondered abstractly, but I pushed it aside. Okay, so I'd kissed Fang. _I'd _kissed _him_, not the other way around, and it hadn't resulted in me running away. That didn't mean that I was going to be all lovey-dovey and Eggy-like twenty-four/seven from then on, even though, I have to admit, some part of me sure wanted to.

I cleared my throat. "Are we gonna tell the kids? About 'Eggy's little stunt', I mean?"

"They probably already know. Angel would've picked it up, Iggy brags about everything to Gazzy, and Nudge would've heard it along the pipeline."

"So we can just assume they know everything and not bother with it," I cleared up.

He nodded without saying a word.

"Nudge'll have to take 'em all to school," I said. It would give her more responsibility and independence—I sorta liked that thought. She was old enough to start taking charge of the younger ones. I mean, she was thirteen, for God's sake, not three. It made me a little nervous, too, but… I realized that I _trusted_ Nudge. Actually more than I trusted Eggy, I think.

"They grow up so fast!" Fang, very un-Fang-like, made a big theatric production about blowing his nose in his shirt. I rolled my eyes, and, for the second time in, like, a week, I chucked a decorative pillow at him.

"God, you big dork," I said.

"Well," he replied, "I know I'm very god-like in all of my handsomeness and all, but I wouldn't go as far as calling me God."

"_So_ full of it. And who said anything about handsome?" I said, laughing.

"No one had to say it," he wiggled his eyebrows at me (again, _very _un-Fang-like). "Your message at the lake was loud 'n' clear."

Oh, my God, he did _not _just say that! Shoot me now. (Not really, crazy fans!) For, like, the billionth time in the past month, I blushed in that great shade of mauve that's sooooo attractive. Fang, in his weird Fang way, was having the same train of thought as me.

"Red is totally your color," he laughed, brushing his hand against my cheek. His touch sent lightning down my spine.

"I, uh, well, I…" I mumbled. Finally, I decided, "I'm just gonna kill you so that I won't have to deal with this anymore."

"Awww, c'mon, you know you love it," he teased.

"Dude, this PDA? Not cool," a foreign voice interrupted.

"Says the king of PDA himself," Fang countered easily.

"Okay, I can't even _see_," Iggy said, ignoring Fang's comment, "and yet I can tell it's PDA. That is so wrong on so many levels."

"Ig, stop with the poor helpless blind kid act already," I said. "We can totally _see_ through it!"

"Ha-ha, so funny."

"Glad you agree," I chose to overlook his sarcasm.

Suddenly our merry little mutant-fight was interrupted by a high buzzing sound. A sound that I thought I recognized, but I wasn't so sure… I looked out the window and promptly regretted it. I thought I was going to cry.

Our house was surrounded with some robot replacements of M-geeks, the last version of Erasers we'd seen. I seriously thought I was going to break down crying any minute.

"I thought this was all behind us!" I said, in a weak voice.

"Dude, tell me that's not what I think it is," Iggy's voice somehow got into my consciousness. It was filled with dread.

"I can tell you, but Mommy said it's wrong to lie," Fang said grimly. Well, at least _someone_ still had a sense of humor.

"Ig, go do something explosive with the Gasman," I ordered half-heartedly. I was still fighting the tears. _Really, Max? _I thought to myself. _Pull yourself together!_

Then I heard Angel's scared little-girl voice in my head. _Max, what's going on?_

_The house is surrounded by robots,_ I thought back at her. I wasn't going to lie. She was too old and too experienced for me to lie to her.

_Max, they're not robots, _I heard her say. _They're _thinking_. I think it's people, in, like, suits. _

Relief sort of flooded through me. Bionic suits? That we could handle… But we couldn't _kill_ the people! Itex knew they had me. We could destroy the robots, but I couldn't bring myself to kill people.

_First of all, get down here,_ I ordered. _Second of all, since they're people, can you make 'em go away?_

I heard the patter of four pairs of feet on the staircase. Iggy hadn't moved. We all went into the kitchen, where there weren't any windows. I could see Angel concentrating.

"They were told to bring us…somewhere. Alive," she said. Well, that's good news. Sorta. "I can make them forget their orders, if you want," she added. "But that's as far as I can get."

"Do they have communications inside of those suits?" Fang spoke up. "'Cuz if they do, making them forget orders isn't going to do much."

"Are you sure you can't just make them… Go away and never come back?" I asked. Angel's mental powers had really gotten a lot stronger over the past few years. Maybe she could get them to leave.

She thought about it. "I can get most of them, but not all of them at the same time."

"Do what you can, kiddo," I said. All of our lives rested in the hands of an eight-year-old. A creepy mind-reading/mind-controlling eight-year-old, true, but an eight-year-old nonetheless.

"I can do it, Max," she said, picking up on my thoughts.

"Good. I trust you," I assured her. And it was true. She'd really changed—for the better—after Paris. She gave me a scared little smile. I could see her concentrating hard…And I could hear the drone of the bionic suits slowly fading into the distance.

We were scared, but safe, for the moment. I grabbed Fang and signaled for Eggy to follow me. "Executive meeting," I said. We had to figure this out, and we had to figure it out before that army came back.

**Oooooh. Can't you just not wait until the next chapter? (Yeah, chew on that for a sec). ****I work for reviews! And it's payday! :D OK, I know, corny. Anyhoo…**


	11. Unanswered Questions

**Author's Note: As you guys will see in this chapter, I am trying to answer questions that JP left unanswered in his books. In this chapter, it's, "Why, in book 3, did the robots find the ****guys but not the girls?" If you guys have any 'unanswered questions' like that, please leave them in a review or PM (Private Message) me! :D**

**Disclaimer: I'm gonna go for a boring disclaimer this time: Maximum Ride does not belong to me. **

"I'm sorry, guys, but I really don't know what to do."

We were up in my room, having our 'meeting'. I was slumped against the door, my acute raptor hearing listening for any eavesdroppers—we're all notorious eavesdroppers, in case you wanted to know. "It just doesn't make any sense. And I don't get how to save the world. I'm just one person, you know?"

I would've never admitted not knowing to the younger kids, which was why they were downstairs, and we were holed up in my room. I would've sent them to the lake or something, but a) it was cold, and b) I was nervous after the attack. Truth be told, I didn't really like admitting it to Ella and Iggy either—they thought I knew what I was doing. The only person who I could really open up to was Fang. But that wasn't an option at the moment.

Iggy shrugged, serious for once. "I guess the best we can do is fight them off if they come after us."

"Or hide," he added as an afterthought.

"How'd they even find us here?" Ella asked. "I mean, Max, you don't have your chip anymore, right?"

Of course I chose that moment to look at Fang. And of course, that made me remember what had gone down at the surgery. I started blushing (So what else is new? I think something's wrong with my cheeks), Ella caught on immediately—she'd been there too—and giggled, and Fang smiled at me, pantomiming carving our initials into a tree. He drew a heart around the 'initials', which made me blush even harder. Iggy was the only one in the dark.

"What?" he asked, hearing Ella giggle.

"Nothing," I growled firmly.

"Okay, so now I _know_ something is up," he said. "Don't you worry, Max, I'll either get it out of Ella or Fang. I have good connections." I almost snorted. He had _especially_ good connections with Ella…tee-hee. Connected at the _lips_, the two of them.

"_Anyways,_" I pressed, "No, I do not have the chip." I sent a death glare at both Fang and Ella, who responded by smiling at me. I mouthed, "You are _so_ dead," at them, but they disregarded it.

"Hey, I have something interesting you might wanna think over," Iggy said. "You know how at one point, you and Fang split the Flock in half over Ari?" God, yeah, I know. "Did you guys happen to see any robots? 'Cuz we got hunted a lot, and I don't remember you guys saying anything about the 'bots."

He punched Fang's arm. "Remember the Hollywood sign?"

"You know I do," Fang answered.

"So, you're saying that somehow they tracked either you, Fang, or Gazzy?" I asked Iggy, trying to get him back on subject.

"I dunno, man. You're the leader. You make the decisions about stuff like that," he replied.

"There's really no way to find out, unless you guys want to visit my mom and get x-rays," I said.

"Could be smart," Fang considered. I shot him a look.

"When _I _got an x-ray, you chewed me out about how _stupid_ it was," I reminded him.

"Well, _then_ we didn't know Val was your mom," he said.

I rolled my eyes at him. "You're just telling yourself that to make yourself feel better about your poor judgment."

"Believe that if you want to," he said with a 'Whatever' face. But he was smiling at me.

"I'm gagging," Iggy said, making choking noises. "You guys are so stupid."

"Says the guy who took two years to get with Ella," I retorted. I smiled to see that I wasn't the only one with a blushing problem.

"I think it's safe to say that the meeting is over," Fang said, rather smugly. (Did I really just say the word 'rather'? Ugh, so… _British_!)

"I'll call my mom," I volunteered.

"I'll talk to her after you," Ella said, still trying to cover up her blush.

We'd gotten _something_ out of the meeting, at least. It was a small lead, but if we got rid of _all _of the chips in the family, we might finally be safe. And then, as Fang had suggested, we could remove ourselves from the equation.

Briefly, I imagined that it was Fang strapped to the table, loaded up on Valium, and that I was the one sitting in the chair next to him, holding his hand. I shook my head; this fantasy was stopping _right there_. But it made me chuckle anyways.

Ella and I practically ran down the stairs to the kitchen, where we had the phone. "D'you think she'll be home?" I asked. I didn't think I could bear getting the answering machine.

Ella looked at the kitchen clock. "It's Sunday, so if there haven't been any emergencies, I'd say so."

I dialed the number. I had it memorized. My mom picked up after two rings. "Hello?"

"Hey, mom, it's Max," I said.

"Oh, Max, it's good to hear from you!" she exclaimed. "How are you?"

I cut to the chase and told her about the weird bionic people and Iggy's theory. I wrapped it up with, "You think we could come down for tomorrow? I'll pull Gazzy out of school, me and Fang don't go anyways, and Ella and Iggy were naughty, so I'm afraid they can't go either…"

"Max!" Ella punched my arm. "Whaddya tell her that for?"

I ignored Ella and listened for my mom's answer.

"Sure, honey, but I won't be free until the afternoon…I end at five, and there might be some emergency work to take care of. Can I speak to that daughter of mine? What did she do?"

I chuckled. "I'll let her tell you herself." Ella gave me a terrified look and squeaked, "Ma-ax!"

"So I'll pull the kids out an hour or so early and we'll be there around six. That okay?"

"Of course, sweetheart."

"Thanks, mom," I said happily. "I'll give you Ella now."

I forced the phone into Ella's hands and ran out of the kitchen before things could get graphic. I went into the living room and explained the plan to Nudge, Angel and Gazzy.

"Be ready at two-ish, okay? I'll drop a note to your teachers," I finished.

"Yay!" Nudge and Angel squealed. They loved my mom. Tell me, how can you _not_? Gazzy looked less than thrilled.

"It'll be okay," I told him, ruffling his already-messy hair. "All of us will be there, and it's just my mom. No one else."

"Will it hurt?" he asked, eyeing my raised, red scar.

"Not at all."

"Okay…" he said, but he looked slightly less apprehensive. I went upstairs to tell Iggy and Fang the news, already excited at the prospect of seeing my mom.

**You know what to do! And in case you don't…**

**Press that button!**


	12. Pass the Chips, Please!

**Author's Note: I'm gonna skip the Author's Note and go to the Disclaimer. **

**Disclaimer: I got bored of disclaimers so I'm gonna skip the disclaimer and go straight to the chapter. **

_Dear Mrs. Whatever,_

_The Sharkalator/Monica de __Something Something Tangerine Butterfly/Angel has to leave at 2:00 today. Please just let them leave without asking questions._

_~Max_

Yeah, right, 'cuz any teacher's gonna fall for that.

"Do we _have_ to go to school today?" Gazzy complained. No, technically they didn't, but I had to exercise my authority over them. I felt that I was a little lacking in that department lately. "I mean, you can't even write a decent excuse note!"

"Thanks, Gaz," I sighed. "And yes, you do have to go to school."

Fang read over my note and snorted. I narrowed my eyes. "C'mon, you could be a _little_ supportive," I said.

"Yeah, Max, but this is a little far," he smirked. I narrowed my eyes further.

"I'll get back to you on this," I said. "This isn't over, Mister."

Finally we decided on the easiest way out of it. "Just all go to the bathroom at two," I sighed again. "We'll be waiting in the parking lot."

Angel and Gazzy were much more enthused by this idea than the note. But not Nudge.

"Can't you write a normal note so we can just leave like normal people?" she asked, stressing the word 'normal'. "I mean, we'll probably be suspended for sneaking out and skipping class. Maybe even expelled. Our family's already sort of in trouble, because of Iggy and Ella, but now we have to sneak out?"

"Fine. I'll have my mom call the school," I almost snapped. Dr. Martinez was the official legal guardian, since she paid for school in taxes anyways and since we didn't have an income and we weren't adults and didn't pay taxes. "We'll be in the parking lot," I repeated.

As they jumped off the deck and into the cool morning air, I called after them, "Two o'clock! Don't forget!"

_We'll be there, _I heard Angel's voice.

'_Kay, sweetie,_ I thought back at her. I guess I was just a little nervous because it was Nudge's first day of taking the kids to school alone. But I knew she'd make it.

I made a fast call to my mom—thankfully, she hadn't left for the office yet—and then I quickly copy-pasted the answers into my and Fang's schoolwork for that day.

Ella and Iggy were still sleeping. The only reason Fang had gotten up at all was because of the Home Schooling 'punishment' thing. Now, though, we found that we didn't actually have anything to do until the lovebirds got up.

"Wanna go flying?" I asked. It was a weak suggestion, but you know what we say: When in doubt, fly. Well, we don't _really_ say that…

Fang shrugged. "Sure."

But I stopped him from getting up. "Never mind. Too cold."

He rolled his eyes and plopped back onto the couch next to me.

Before long, I was sprawled out on the couch, my wings partially open, my head on Fang's shoulder, my breathing even. I was half asleep—I mean, it was seven freaking o'clock! Way too early. _Unnaturally _early. Why did God even create mornings? I am _not _a morning person.

Fang started lazily playing with a strand of my hair, which in itself almost woke me up. Almost. But my tiredness, combined with my horizontal position, made me fall asleep.

I woke up probably two hours later to the sound of voices. Somehow my head had migrated to Fang's chest and his arm was around my shoulders. Both of our pairs of wings were splayed out.

"Awww, how cute!" that voice undoubtedly belonged to Ella. Then she started describing our position to Iggy.

"Yeah, so cute I wanna puke," he said in typical Iggy fashion.

I yawned and sat up. Fang was also already awake.

"So, they're alive," I said, as if Ella and Iggy weren't even there.

He chuckled sleepily. "Sure seems so."

"We're right here, you know," Ella said. "And excuse me if I actually want to sleep, not get up at the crack of dawn for no reason."

"Yeah, what she said!" Iggy agreed.

"Get to work," I said, motioning to the laptop. "Fang and I not only finished our work for the day, we also conveniently made you accounts."

Fang and I went onto the deck and just sat there, talking a little, for about an hour, before going back inside and finding Ella and Iggy hard at work. _Very_ hard at work, if you catch my drift. If you don't, let me add that this Eggy thing was getting to be pretty serious. If you still don't get it, I'll state it plain as day: they were sitting on the couch making out.

"Whatever, guys," I called to them. "Just have the schoolwork done before two and I'll be fine with it."

They didn't even look at me. A little miffed, I went back out onto the deck. Fang followed me out.

"You know, they're not the only ones who can do that," he said.

No. Freaking. Way. He did _not_ just say that.

"Do what?" I asked, playing dumb for the moment.

Instead of replying, he put his arms around me and kissed me. And I actually kissed him back. I had to hold on at first, making sure that I wouldn't run away again, but after a while I relaxed and just kissed him. And I can't say I didn't enjoy it—Like Fang so prudently pointed out, Mommy says it's wrong to lie!

We stood there and kissed for a long time. We didn't break apart until we heard a prudish voice saying, "Hypocrites!" indignantly (It was Iggy, of course. Ella would never be so un-classy). Fang looked at me, as if waiting for me to bolt, but I just grinned at him and turned to Iggy. "Actually, we were following your example."

Iggy rolled his eyes, but Ella looked genuinely happy. As we went inside, Fang's hand brushed against mine and I felt a thrill going up from my fingertips to my spine.

I'm pathetic, I know. The boy kisses me and I run away. Then his hand brushes my hand and I'm all girly giggle mode.

I cleared my throat. "What time is it?"

"Face time," Iggy muttered under his breath, but Ella answered, "Noon."

"You guys done with school?"

Both of them rolled their eyes. We've been doing that a lot to each other lately, I noted. "Yeah," they said.

"So what do you guys want to do?" We couldn't, say, go down to the lake. We only had about an hour left before we had to leave. So Ella and I went up to her room to talk, and the guys stayed downstairs to play video games or whatever.

"So?" she prompted the second the door closed behind us.

"What?" I asked.

"What's up with you and Fang?" she said, with a 'Duh' kind of expression.

"We kissed a couple of times," I replied nonchalantly.

Ella rolled her eyes at me. "Dude, that was more than just regular kissing. That was _passion_."

"You've been watching too many soap operas," I accused, throwing a pillow at her and blushing furiously.

"Yeah, whatever, Max. You're in denial."

"Maybe I am. Maybe I am."

**Whatcha think? You know the drill. **


	13. The Flight

**Author's Note: Okay, this chapter is superlong compared to the other chapters I've written… Enjoy! :D And review! :D **

**To answer a review question: Max and Fang are unofficially together, just like they were for the first 5 books in the series. **

**Disclaimer: Technically, Maximum Ride IS mine cuz I thought of it first! (Even though I was like two when the series first came out…) But legally, it's not mine. Boo-hoo! **

Imagine, if you will, that you're standing on a deck, ten feet or so off the ground. You then climb up on the railing, balancing precariously on the edge, which means you are another four or so feet up. Your wings are relaxed, not pulled into your back, every feather dancing in the breeze. You flex your muscles, roll your shoulders, and toss yourself off the railing.

For a split-second, human instinct takes over and your brain is screaming at you. _Why did you do that? Are you freaking _suicidal_? _But then your wings unfurl gracefully, a yard from the ground, and you are yanked into the air. You flap quickly, rising almost ten feet with every downstroke. You look down and pretty soon, your toes are skimming the treetops. The wind is in your face, blowing your hair out of the way. You get to cruising altitude and soar, letting the wind take you forward. You look down again and you see people, as small as ants. For a second, you wonder what would happen if you were to just drop. You laugh out loud, the sound snatched away by the wind.

Doesn't even just thinking about it give you a thrill? That's just a glimpse of what it's like to be flying. It's a privilege I get to enjoy every day. It never gets old. I imagine it must be a thousand times more exciting for Ella, who's new to this. With every move, even on the ground, she can feel the weight of new wings on her back, reminding her that she is special, that she isn't limited to the ground. We don't really feel our wings any more than we feel our feet or arms, but to her, it must be a billion times more extraordinary.

Anyways. Done with Max's poetic description of flying.

The four of us, me and Ella in short-shorts and hoodies with slits for our wings, Iggy and Fang in cargo shorts and zip-up sweatshirts, arrived at the junior-high school at almost exactly two o'clock. Then we leaned against a car, pretending it was ours (a technique we'd developed a long time ago) and tried to peer through the windows to get a glimpse of the Flock members.

Anyone else would've only seen the reflection of the sun in the windows, but with our superacute raptor vision, we could actually see what was going on inside. I located Nudge first.

"Second window to the right of the door, first floor," I told them.

Nudge waved at us and started chattering to her teacher. I could actually read her lips saying, "Yeah, um, I have to leave now? I think Dr. Martinez called to tell you I was going to have to go, she's like my mom but not really, she's my sister's mom, but that doesn't make her my mom. It's sorta hard to explain, but we're going to her house now and my sister Max is already here to pick me up, and her boyfriend Fang—" Not the words I would use, but okay, "—and Iggy, who's sort of my brother, and Ella, she's Iggy's girlfriend but she's Max's sister, like, her real sister. It's sort of hard to explain, and when I say it like that it sort of sounds weird, but it's not like that, Ella and Max are the only real siblings, it's hard to explain…" I cringed as I read her lips. Jeez, it sounds like we're some perverted family who dates each other.

"Did she seriously just say that?" Ella squeaked, blushing red. Ah, so I'm not the only one reading Nudge's lips.

Fang tore himself out of a conversation with Iggy to say, "What?"

"Nothing," I said quickly, but I looked at Ella and said, "She makes it sound sooooo wrong, doesn't she?"

Ella made a face. "Now is a moment where I wish I didn't have raptor vision and insane lip-reading skills."

Fang gave me a look but shrugged when I waved him away with my hand. I was so _not_ telling him what I'd just witnessed.

Anyways, the three of them came out of the school with empty hands. "We left our backpacks in our lockers, it's a four-hour flight, I don't think we're going to be able to carry all that weight, I mean, I know we used to carry backpacks, but now we're a little out of shape. I think I should start working out, I don't really want to be out of shape, especially with those weird robot-people on the loose," Nudge explained. When she stopped to draw a breath, I said, "Nudge, just do me a favor and _never_ try to explain our family's relationships to anyone ever again, okay?"

She looked at me, all embarrassed. "Were you reading my lips? I know that came out a little funny, I'm sorry! Don't be mad at me saying that Fang's your—" I elbowed her. "Jeez, what was that for! Oh, never mind."

Now everyone except for Ella and Nudge, who knew what was going on, were looking at me funny.

"Okay, people, never mind," I said. "We're going to walk for two blocks, then into the forest, like we know what we're doing." That was the way we'd come. I was already stressing about someone seeing us and asking questions. I'd made the four of us tuck our wings into our sweatshirts, and the slits were long but very thin, so no one would see anything. I'd also told the kids what to dress in this morning—Nudge had on some cute jean bottom thing and a sweatshirt, Gazzy had khakis and a sweatshirt, and Angel had white shorts and…wait for it…all together now… a sweatshirt. See a trend? Sweatshirts are good at hiding wings and light enough to fly in but be warm in thirty thousand feet above Earth.

Before long, we were in the forest. We jogged for about a mile before climbing some trees—the kids find it hard to take off without a running start and surrounded by trees—and took off.

It was the middle of the day, so we had to get up into the clouds superspeed. Unfortunately, there were no clouds. I was already sweating buckets from nerves.

"Okay, guys, we get up as high as possible as fast as possible," I said. "There aren't any clouds today, so we'll just have to hope that if anyone looks at us we'll just look like hawks from that distance. Or they won't see us at all."

Everybody nodded. We shook our wings out so that the feathers could align again and took off into the air, one by one.

Fang and I were the last ones on the ground. "Stop stressing," he told me. "We're gonna go see your mom. You should be pumped."

"I am pumped," I said with a weak smile. "Just nervous right now."

We took off. I swear, it never gets better than this! I hit my overdrive speeds, soon catching up to Ella, who'd been the first in the air. Once we were at our usual height of twenty-five thousand feet or so, I started to relax and enjoy flying.

"Take it easy, guys," I called. "We haven't done this for a while, so we're gonna keep a slower pace."

Fang flew up closer to me, so close, in fact, that his pure-black wingtips were brushing my tawny feathers. I swear, every time he touched me, sparks flew from my wingtips and all through my body.

"So what was up with Nudge?" he asked me.

"Curiosity killed the bird-kid," I quipped, and he nudged my wing with his. "She was just trying to explain all of our…relationships," I said. "It ended up sounding like we were a perverted family where the sisters and brothers all dated each other, the way she said it."

"Ah." Fang grinned at me so unexpectedly that I dropped a few feet. He dropped to my level and we flew together for a while.

It was six by the time we actually crossed the Arizona border, when we were supposed to be at my mom's house. I wasn't even out of breath, but I could tell that Gazzy, Angel and Ella were struggling with the long flight.

"We only have about half an hour more," I called out. It wasn't really that long, by bird-kid time, and sure enough, half an hour later we were looking for a safe place to land. We ended up dropping into a clump of trees, pulling our wings into our sweatshirts, and tiredly (in some cases) jogging two miles to my mom's new apartment building.

You're probably thinking, "You've been flying for four hours and still manage to jog over two miles?" but you have to remember that we're genetically enhanced. Two miles on land is no more than two miles in the air, which takes us like two seconds. Well not really, but…

We met my mom outside the building. After all the necessary hugging, crying, et cetera, she led us inside.

We'd all been in the apartment a couple of times before, so we knew the drill. My mom's apartment is pretty big, with a kitchen, living room, two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a study, but it usually ends up being a huge camp-out in the living room anyways. Angel and Gazzy, as the youngest and the siblings, usually shared the second bedroom while the rest of us slept in the living room. That's how it was going to be this time too.

"Can we just get it over with today?" Gazzy asked my mom, shaking out his wings. Usually, even at home, we keep them plastered against our backs so we don't get out of practice and make some mistake in public (coughcoughEggycough). But since this was considered a vacation, they could do whatever they wanted. It was only a bonus that mom loved seeing our wings.

"We can go anytime you want," Dr. Martinez answered graciously.

"So who votes we go today?" I said. Almost everyone raised their hands. This kind of stuff makes us nervous. It happens when you grow up in a lab.

"We can go right now," my mom said.

"You guys mind if I fly?" I asked suddenly. The flight here was intoxicating and I couldn't wait to get more.

Dr. Martinez looked a little uneasy, probably because of the recent robo-people attack, until Fang got up from the couch. "I'll go with you," he said.

"It's three miles due east from here," my mom instructed. "You'll see it."

"'S there a fire escape or something?" Fang asked.

"Yep, out the guest bedroom," Angel piped up. "You can take it straight to the roof."

We did just that, slipping our sweatshirts on and forcing our wings through the slits at the same time. Then we took off, the wind whipping our faces, et cetera, et cetera. It only took five minutes to get to the animal hospital. We found a good place to land and met my mom by the entrance.

One by one, the Flock members got their arms x-rayed. Then we sat down at the computer as my mom electronically scanned them through.

She started from youngest and went up. "Angel, you're clear, sweetie. Gazzy…you're fine. Nudge, you don't have anything…Ella, you're clean." She stopped at Fang and Iggy's x-rays. "You have chips like Max's, but they're more towards the surface. Either they were inserted later or just not as deep."

"So the first generation has chips," I said, wondering what to make of that.

Iggy started freaking out. "What? I have a chip? What am I supposed to do now? I'll have to move into a cave and become a hermit, battling evil forces to keep you safe… Fang, man, we must distance ourselves from the ones we love NOW!"

Fang cracked a smile and rolled his eyes. "I'm rolling my eyes, Ig."

"Iggy, you're overreacting," my mom said. "Your chips are, for some reason, a lot more operable than Max's was." She examined the x-rays for some time, tracing lines and thinking, than she said, "There's virtually no risk at all in removing these chips."

"Good," I said briskly. "Then we operate tomorrow."

**Click. Click. Click that button! **


	14. Operation: Iggy

**Author's Note: Here's the next chapter for ya! ****It's another long one. Hope ya like it! :D**

**Disclaimer: Yeah, yeah, I don't own Maximum Ride, blah blah blah, et cetera et cetera. **

"Maximum Ride, I think you have finally gone off the deep end."

"Iggy, that's the fifth time you said that," I said. "And we _have_ to get the chips out. First of all, you don't want to have to become a hermit. Second of all, you don't hear Fang whining about it like a baby."

Iggy looked over at me. I mean, he _looked _like he was looking—with him you never know. "That's 'cuz Fang cries like a baby on the _inside_, not on the outside."

Fang snorted. "Dude, I don't think so."

"All dudes cry on the inside."

"Again, I don't think so."

"Fine," I interrupted their manly quarrel. "Then Ig, take your crying to the inside. It's not going to hurt. I'm still alive, see?"

"Yeah, but you ended up losing your arm until Jeb fixed it and professing your undying love for Fang," he said.

"What?" I squeaked, feeling my cheeks flaring up. Iggy ignored me.

"Did you tell him?" I hissed at Fang, sending him the death glare he was deserving all too often lately. I _might've_ _accidentally_ said that I _liked_ Fang because I'd been on _drugs_. Okay, so that's an understatement. Just read book 3, I can't keep explaining all this stuff.

Fang shrugged. "I neither deny nor confirm."

"Actually, it was Ella," Iggy chortled. Chortled? Since when does Iggy _chortle_? "The girl's a sucker for a kiss."

Ella threw a pillow at Iggy from across the room, then turned to me apologetically. "I was half asleep, and he… bribed me," she said.

"Note to self," I snarled. "Keep Eggy apart when my _dear_ sister is short on caffeine."

"Note to self," Ella retorted, "Avoid Max for the time being!"

"Smart decision," I said, but I could already feel myself forgiving Ella. Not that I was going to let her know that… "Just don't tell Gazzy or Nudge." Gazzy would never let me hear the end of it, and Nudge would be all "That's sooooo cute!" mode. Angel, with her creepy mind, probably already knew.

"Don't tell Gazzy or Nudge what?" subject one of that sentence, AKA the Gasman, asked, coming into the living room.

"We can't tell you that Max—" I smacked Iggy again with a pillow. He got the message loud 'n' clear. "Nothing."

"_Very_ convincing," Gazzy said, then, in my voice, "Now tell me, Iggy, I forgot. What are we not supposed to tell me—I mean, Gazzy—and Nudge?"

"Iggy, you keep your mouth shut or I'll beat you up so bad you won't have any other choice," I threatened. Unfortunately, there was really no way to tell between my real voice and Gazzy pretending to have my voice, especially for the blind kid. Except that I would never say anything like that… Or forget anything in two seconds.

"Sorry, man," Iggy said, but I saw him winking to the Gasman, who happily left the room again.

"Dude, not cool," I threw another pillow at him for good measure. "A word of this leaves this room and I will have Angel wipe all of your memories."

_I'm not gonna do that, Max_, Angel's slightly offended voice came into my consciousness.

_I know. I'm just threatening__, _I replied.

_M'k__ay then! _she thought, happy again, and went back to whatever she'd been doing before. Probably combing through fashion mags with Nudge.

Then my mom came in with a whole pile of comforters and pillows for the five of us who were going to sleep in the living room. It was eleven o'clock already, so as soon as I'd set up my poofy comforter between Fang and Ella, I went into the guest bedroom to put the kids to bed.

"Nudge, you're sleeping in the living room with the rest of us. We left you the couch," I said. "Gaz, Angel, get ready for bed too, okay?"

We hadn't actually brought a change of clothes, so we just piled into the comforters as best we could. Nudge curled up on the big couch. Fang and Iggy helped me move the table over to a corner so we'd have room to sleep. My mom retreated to her room too, calling out, "Good night!" to all of us.

We were still pretty smushed, even without the table in our way, but whatever. I tucked Gazzy and Angel in, then turned out the living room lights and found my way to my comforter.

Fang, sleeping behind me, put an arm around my waist, and I curled up into him without a second thought. (Jeez, I must've _really_ been tired.) Eggy were having their own pre-bedtime display, and Nudge was already out like a light. It didn't take me more than a couple of minutes for me to fall asleep myself.

~~~The Next Day~~~

"I can stay home with you guys," I offered. "So we can do something _fun_."

"Max." That'd be Angel. "I think they need you more over there."

"Fine," I huffed. Thought I'd been nervous when I'd been the one _getting_ the surgery? Nope! That wasn't anything compared to what I was feeling now. Why? Well, a) I hadn't had to see it then, and b) I'd been drugged. Not that I was ever letting anyone give me Valium ever again. The results had been disastrous enough the first time around.

The younger kids were staying home. They didn't need—or want—that kind of trauma. So it was the four of us: Fang, Ella, Iggy, and me, going.

We got to the hospital five minutes later. It was after-hours on Tuesday, and my mom had assured us that nobody was going to be there. She led us to the OR, then asked, "Who's going to go first?"

"Fang!" Iggy immediately volunteered. All three of us said, at the same time, "I'm rolling my eyes, Ig." Which, of course, made us crack up into nervous laughter.

Fang absolutely refused to be strapped down to the undersized table.

"Why?" I asked.

"Because he's a _man_," Iggy supplied.

"Ah. So he's too manly to have surgery done the normal way."

"It's not _normal_!" Iggy was outraged. "I'm _blind_, and I can tell that half of him would be hanging off that table."

I looked at Fang, but he shook his head. "Lab," he mouthed seriously. I nodded. Fang wasn't too "manly" to be strapped down to the table—it just had painful lab associations.

My mom sat him down in a chair and started the IV. Fang looked at me and waggled his eyebrows. "You could hold my hand."

"My God, you are so full of it, aren't you? Why do I even like you?" I muttered, but I thrust my hand into his anyways.

"Max, Max, Max," he started in an undertone, in the same voice I'd started my "Fang, Fang, Fang, I love you _sooooo _much!" proclamation.

"I'm gonna smack you," I growled, and thankfully he didn't get further into the stupid thing.

Before long, my mom was asking Fang to move his fingers. Thankfully, he did it (unlike me), and it was Iggy's turn.

"It's not fair, how you didn't go all loopy from the Valium!" I complained to Fang.

"I have lots of practice not blurting out everything that floats through my head," he said with a smirk.

This time, I did smack him.

Iggy's turn under the knife, so to speak, was a lot more entertaining. He firmly protested the table, even when my mom said he could sit in a chair like Fang. Then the Valium _really_ started kicking in, and he went completely crazy.

"Ella, look at that!" he yelled at the top of his lungs, pointing at nothing. "I think I can see it!"

"Iggy, _be quiet_," Ella said tensely. Okay, so the clinic was closed, but we were still bird kids and one of us still had a chip.

I played absentmindedly with the edge of Fang's bandage and watched Iggy freak out.

"Man," he said, turning his head, "I feel so relaxed. I should be on this stuff _all the time_."

"Uh, no, Iggy, trust me. It's not that great," I said.

"Isn't it?" Fang asked, playfully nudging me.

"_I am going to murder you_."

"Not until this heals," he waved his bandaged arm around. "It's gotta be a fair game."

"Oh, so you couldn't take me on with one hand in a bandage? That takes your credibility _down_, Fang."

"PDA," Iggy coughed wildly.

"Oh, shut up," we both said at the same time.

"Guess what? I think I have _feet_!" he yelled.

"No kidding, Ig." I couldn't help myself. What kind of thoughts go through that bird-kid's head? I guess I was finding out, whether I wanted to or not.

"And wings! What if my feet were my wings? That would be _weird_," he said.

"What do I see in him?" Ella said with a grin, looking at me.

I laughed. "I dunno. You tell me."

"Then I'd have wings for feet. Like flippers!" he shouted.

"Mom, do you have anything that'll make him, like, shut up?" Ella asked.

"Oh, you don't mean that, honeymunchkins," Iggy crooned, and Ella blushed red up to her roots.

"Please _don't _tell me that's what he calls you," I said, already dreading the answer.

"I swear, it's not," Ella said. Okay, I'd believe her…

For now. [Evil cackling, lighting, the works!]

**I'm gonna be Canadian for this Author's Note, eh? That was a pretty funny chapter, e****h? Eh, there's more Fax coming up for those of you who like it. Eh. **


	15. Killing Fang

**Author's Note: Okay, so you know how Max is always threatening to murder Fang? In this chapter, they get to duke it out! I don't know why I wrote that, I usually don't summarize chapters in these notes… And I don't know why I used the word 'duke'. What is up with that? I mean, DUKE? Well, it's clear that I'm on, like, a sugar high (actually it's a dancing high—I danced for an hour straight down in my dance room, which is actually more than class, since in class the teacher talks to you and you're not dancing the whole time and stuff, right before I wrote this, sooooo….) Okay. Author's note: OVER.**

**Disclaimer: Since I wrote that whole Author's Note up there, I'm gonna stick with the boring disclaimer: Maximum Ride is not mine. **

"I have to kill you three times," I mused. "How to do this, how to do this?"

"What? Three times? What for?" Fang said.

You know how I always say, "Fang, I'm gonna _murder_ you!" and I never really do it? Well, now I'm gonna do it! In front of an audience of Eggy, instead of doing schoolwork. Fun, right?

"Once, for that stunt at the lake," I ticked off on my fingers.

"Which stunt?" he asked, cocking an eyebrow suggestively. I chucked one of Nudge's pillows at him; I was really going to have to thank her for making me get those, they were coming in handy _a lot_ lately.

"The name-calling one? Yeah, that one. Hate to burst your bubble," I replied. Eggy was looking at us curiously, so I continued with my list. "Back to why I have to kill you. Second time, I believe it was because you _splashed _me in the lake." He smirked at me (since he'd kissed me right after he'd splashed me, to those of you who don't get _subtlety_), and I wanted to hit him, but I'd run out of decorative pillows. "And then the third time, I threatened to kill you while Iggy was contemplating the permanent benefits of Valium." Can't make idle threats, ya know?

It was a week after the surgery, meaning both of the guys were alive and well and good-as-new. We'd never let Iggy hear the end of 'honeymunchkins' and the whole feet-for-wings thing. I didn't actually have anything to hold over Fang, though, and in fact it just made him mention the "Fang, Fang, Fang…." thing more.

"So…how're you going to kill me?"

"I don't know. See, that's the problem. Eggy, a little help?"

"You can… Never kiss him again? But that'd be sorta like punishing yourself, too…" I shot Ella a death glare. "Sorry, never mind."

"How about you…Drown him!" Iggy suggested. "We can all go to the lake."

"Hello? Gills?"

"Oh, right. We can still go to the lake."

"Next answer!"

"Can't we go to the lake?"

"Iggy, what is it with you and your fixation with the lake?" I asked, a little peeved. "Just tell me how to kill Fang already!"

"I'm siding with Ig on this one. Let's go to the lake," Fang said.

"Ah. Anything to get out of getting killed, huh?"

He just shot me a 'No Freaking DUH' look. But with a smile.

"So how do you suggest I kill you? Actually, never mind, don't answer that," I said. He'd take the easy way out, sucker.

"Let's go to the lake," he said.

"No! We are not going to the stupid lake! Get over it!" I yelled. "_Anyways_. Back to killing you. I could…Buy you a colorful wardrobe—or, better yet, a _khaki_ wardrobe…" Book 5, people. Don't ask. _Read_. "Or I could cut your hair, like, _buzz_ cut…Oooh, or I could cook you dinner! I'm liking this more and more. Or, hmmm…Yeah, I think I'm gonna cook you dinner. Or I could turn you over to Nudge and Angel for a complete makeover. That would be interesting…"

"God, Max, please no," Fang moaned.

"God, Fang, oh _yes_," I said, laughing. "Maybe I can replace all of your iPod music with Hannah Montana! And delete _your_ music permanently…Or I could set up parental blocks on the laptop so you couldn't go on your blog… Eh, I think I'll cook—"

"Max, shut up."

I swear, my eyebrows shot up so far that I thought they were gonna jump right off my forehead. "_Excuse _me? _What_ did you just say?"

He took a step closer. "I said, just shut up."

Fang put an arm around my waist, under my wings, leaned down, and kissed me. Right there, in front of Eggy, in the middle of the living room, in the middle of the freaking day.

And guess what I did?

I stood there like a freaking moron.

By the time my brain started functioning again and I was able to think clearly, he was letting go. I thought distractedly, _Nuh-uh, Mister, this ain't over yet. _Then I put my arms around his neck and started kissing him back. I could feel his lips smiling against mine, which made me smile too. And so we stood there, kissing.

God, I am sooooo stupid.

And yet I can't say it wasn't fun.

We've kissed four times in the past couple of weeks, and he'd tried to kiss me once outside of that. I should really have stopped freaking out by now, sink back into the familiar routine…but I couldn't. Some part of me was still obsessing over every single little detail, every kiss, everything he said, every time we touched. And some part of me was scared—terrified, more like—that history would repeat itself and that my heart would just be broken again.

In that way he has, Fang sensed what I was feeling. He pulled me closer, kissed me harder. I kissed him back with all I had. And fireworks exploded behind my closed eyes.

When we finally broke apart, I said, "You know, you're not getting off easy just because you did that. I'm still cooking you dinner."

Fang groaned. "Can Iggy at least _help_ you?"

From somewhere on the couch, Iggy protested, "Not a chance, man. This is between the two of you and between the two of you it will stay."

"Jeez, Ig, you're getting poetic lately," I said. "And actually, you _can _help me. You cook for the Flock, I'll cook for Fang personally."

"Then…then _I'll_ help you," Fang offered desperately.

"Dude, you, cooking? Loooooow." Fang wouldn't be caught _dead_ in the kitchen, especially since some deranged fan asked him if he was a housewife. (God, his fans crack me up.) So he wouldn't be in the kitchen, unless he was eating.

"It's better than _you _cooking," he countered.

"Exactly why I'm going to cook you dinner. And you're gonna _eat it_, unless you want it to end up on your head." Like the first time I'd tried to cook. Fang had tried to eat, spit it back out, and I'd promptly turned the bowl over on his head.

It's at times like these I love life. Okay, so maybe I _like_ Fang. A little. Okay, fine, a lot. But I like torturing him, too.

_I'm just not sure which of these feelings is stronger__! _I joked to myself.

**Sooooo? How'd ya like it? **

**Here's the deal: I won't write a closing Author's Note for the next chapter, I'm just gonna trust you to review anyways! :D If that doesn't work, I'll come back to nagging you guys! :)**


	16. Dinner for Fang

**Author's Note: Hey hey hey! Here's the next chapter in this **_**awesome**_** story! :D Hope ya like it! **

**Disclaimer: I know I am an amazing writer, and that I am just like James Patterson, but I do not own Maxy Ridey. I know, sad. **

"Dinner is _served_," I announced, setting a covered platter in front of Fang. (Well, not really—it was just a big dish covered with one of Iggy's big silver mixing bowls.) The Flock turned toward him, ooh-ing and ah-ing. Everyone knew I was a terrible cook. I even admit it myself. That's why dinner was going to be _very _entertaining that night.

Since I only know how to make things with instructions on the box—and even those I somehow manage to mess up—Fang was getting to eat a box of mac 'n' cheese and another box of Seasoned Summer Pasta (Don't ask me… That's what it said on the package!). He sure was getting a noodle-icious dinner!

With a very un-Max-like flourish, I unveiled his dinner and set the mixing bowl on the table in front of him. "Enjoy!"

He rolled his eyes at me, pleaded, said funny things, and even tried to make the puppy-dog eyes at me. It didn't work. He was going to eat those noodles even if it _killed _him. I'm such a bad cook that you can take the above sentence literally.

I piled eggs over easy, toast, and bacon on my plate and dug into my 'Breakfast-for-Dinner' dinner, a la Iggy. Fang was looking at those noodles as if they were going to bite him—which, he was probably assuming, they were.

"Yummy yummy," Iggy taunted him. "Eat up, Fangy."

"Well, _I_ think it's sweet that Max wanted to make Fang dinner. Fang, you should stop being rude," Nudge said. That just made me, Ella, Iggy and Angel (creepy mind reader, hello?) crack up. Fang didn't even smile.

"What?" Nudge asked, clearly not in the know. Gazzy looked equally puzzled.

"Nudge, I made him dinner _on purpose_," I said. "As in, not because I think it's cute. Can you imagine me doing something _cute_?"

That earned another series of laughs. Nope, Max-the-cute I am not.

"Yeah, see, Fang was a bad boy," Iggy explained further. "So now he has to eat Max's cooking."

A normal girl would've felt a little hurt at this point, but a) I am not exactly normal, and b) I have long gotten over the fact that I cannot cook to save my life.

What Fang did not know, however, was that I had completely emptied the pantry of boxed noodles because I'd set them—every single one of them, I kid you not—on fire. Iggy had taken pity on Fang and made the last batch. He'd oversalted it and made it not-so-great on purpose, but they weren't actually going to make Fang puke up his guts for the next week. And trust me, with my cooking, I probably could've achieved that, too.

Which made Fang's horrified expression as he looked at the noodles even more funny.

"I will give you until the count of three to start eating," I threatened. "Or you will suddenly have unusually interesting hair. I will personally make sure that you do not have access to a shower for the next week."

"You love to torture me, don't you," he muttered, looking green in the face. "But I am _not_ eating your noodles."

"Have it your way," I said calmly. _Too_ calmly. It wouldn't have been a warning for anyone but Fang. I sometimes think he knows me way too well for my own good.

With a sudden half-quirk smile, he got up from the table and sprinted to the window. I grabbed a fistful of noodles from the plate and raced after him. Iggy, cackling, followed my lead and dashed after us, the rest of the Flock close behind.

Fang had to waste precious seconds opening the window, but he got those precious seconds back when he slammed the window back down. Now Iggy and I had to wrench the window open, costing _us_ precious seconds.

In the air, though, Fang was no match to me. I threw myself out of the window, keeping a death grip on the noodles. I'm gonna go a bit off topic here to point out: Have you ever noticed how hard it is to hold on to noodles when flying at speeds of upward 200 miles per hour? No, I guess you have not.

Anyways. I kicked my flying into overdrive and suddenly, I was right above him. "I've got you right where I want'cha," I said in what I hoped was a quiet, menacing voice.

He laughed and rolled over midair, making the top of his head inaccessible. We both knew that he could only keep up that position for so long before he started falling like a rock. When he was forced to roll over again, I plopped my full weight right on his back, behind his wings.

"Jesus, Max, you've gotta start exercising," Fang groaned under my weight. He tried the rollover move again, but I was squeezing my knees together hard enough not to fall off. Also, by that time backup (read: the Flock) was on its way.

"Now I just have to somehow reach your hair," I thought out loud.

He laughed and said, "Not a chance."

But I already had a plan figured out.

In one smooth movement, I pinned his wings together on the upstroke with the non-noodle-holding hand. I knew I had to get it over with quickly, if I didn't want to go ker-splat and make Fang go ker-splat with me. So, using my momentum, I brought my knees up and hoisted myself up, so that now I was kneeling between Fang's folded wings.

"Maximum Ride, you are really going to get it!" he shouted, but the threat slid off me like rain slides off feathers.

Then I started massaging the gooey noodles into his long-ish hair. Okay, for all of you manga fans out there: Fang does _not_ have girl hair, like, down to his middle. He has long hair _for a guy_, not for a girl. So, it's not like a buzz cut. It's right at the length where the school principal would be politely asking him to cut it, not at the point where he has to tie it into a pony tail.

Anyways, I was massaging the noodles into his hair. He growled at me, "Maximum, you are _beyond _dead." I knew I was going to be in major trouble with him later: First of all, Fang gives empty threats no more than I do. Second of all, he _never_ calls me Maximum unless it's serious.

And then the Flock descended, each one of them bearing another fistful of my noodles. I started cracking up. I wiped the remnants of greasy pasta into Fang's hair and released his wings, simultaneously rolling off his back and snapping out my own wings. Fang was bombarded with noodles, though most of them were _way _off—the only ones that actually made it were Gazzy's (He's a pyro. He's used to throwing projectiles.) and Iggy's (How, I don't know. He's the blind one.). Mine had the most effect, though. Just taking a guess there.

As soon as the overexcited bird kids dispersed, giving Fang room to fly, he grabbed a fistful of noodles off his own hair and gave me a devious look. "I'm coming for you, Maximum!" I knew I had reason to be worried. I mean, that's the third time the boy's used my full name in, like, a minute!

"Oh no you don't!" I yelled, but I knew it was futile. No matter what I said, he wouldn't give up the chase. So I stopped talking and started flying.

I easily hit 300 miles with my super-flying. I chanced a look back—and almost got my head torn off my neck for my efforts—and saw the black dot that was Fang in the distance.

I decided to go a little further, then make a wide circle back around and come back into the house. I could hole myself up in my room for the rest of the day and maybe by tomorrow the incident would be forgotten.

Well, a girl can hope, can't she?

**This chapter was really fun to write…Hope it was fun to read, too! :D**


	17. Falling In and Blowing Up

**Author's Note:**

**Disclaimer: Q: Maximum Ride, mine? A: NO.**

** Q: **_**Falling In **_**by Lifehouse, mine? A: Nope!**

**Q: Plot, mine? A: Oh, yeah!**

It was one of those lazy mornings, after the kids had left for school but before Ella and Iggy got up. One of those mornings where Fang and I had to either keep on pinching each other awake or just went ahead, curled up and succumbed to the tiredness. One of those peaceful, quiet, sleepy mornings, partway into fall.

Except for the fact that I was constantly watching my back for retaliation from the noodle incident.

Nudge had been listening to the radio and nobody had the energy to turn it off, so it kept on playing modern music I didn't know. I kicked my feet up on the table, hip-to-hip with Fang on the couch, and closed my eyes. My foot subconsciously bobbed to the beat of the song that was on. That was how we spent pretty much the next hour.

At about nine o'clock, I went to the kitchen and poured myself a coffee. I mixed in tons of sugar, chocolate sauce, and milk, topped it with whipped cream, and went back to the living room. Fang was sitting up semi-alertly.

"It's alive!" I grinned at him, and he rolled his eyes good-naturedly in response. The radio was _still_ on, since _someone _decided not to turn it off when they left, but I actually didn't mind.

I gulped my coffee down, then curled my legs up under me and shook out my wings. "So how do you suggest we spend the time until Eggy shows signs of life?" I asked.

A song that was slow-ish, yet energetic, came on after the commercial break. Fang suddenly stood up and offered his hand. "Let's dance."

Uh, _who are you and what have you done with the real Fang?_

"I don't know how to dance," I said hesitantly.

He gave me that famous little smile of his, which made me believe that maybe Fang hadn't been abducted by, say, aliens, (or evil scientists, in my life) and replaced with a clone. Actually a valid concern for me. And _no_, I am _not_ over-paranoid! I could name a gajillion times my cute little paranoia had saved our bird-kid butts.

"Neither do I."

"Okay." Whatever floats your boat, I guess.

At first, we just stood there, my hands on his shoulders, his around my waist, swaying to the music. Then we started getting funny, doing ridiculous dance moves from, like, the '40s. You know, twirls, dips, the whole finger-snapping hip-shaking spiel.

We ended leaning against each other, laughing. That was the first time I actually heard the song we'd been "dancing" to.

"_Every time I see your face/My heart takes off on a high-speed chase/Don't be scared, it's only love/Baby that we're falling in."_

And the song actually sort of applied to my situation. I'm not being one of those creepers who always goes, "The song SPOKE to me! It was a message from ABOVE!" But it made sense, with my life. Especially the "Don't be scared" part, since I obviously had trouble with not being scared about this love thing.

Anyways.

Apparently Fang was having the same train of thought as me (what else is new?). Suddenly we sobered, both at the same time. He put his arms around my waist and whispered, "It's true." He started leaning in, my hands were already on their way up to his shoulders, but…

…A loud buzzing noise interrupted us.

A buzzing sound I knew way too well.

I snapped to the ground—there's no better way to say it—dragging Fang down with me. In a way, it was almost good that this had happened when it'd happened—my hands were so close to him that it took a split-second before we were both on the ground. All the laughing, dancing, and possible kissing was forgotten in an instant.

"We've got to get Eggy," I ordered tensely. "Do your blendy-thingy and get Iggy. _Do not be seen_." As Fang disappeared before my very eyes, I couldn't hold back a, "Be careful!"

To those of you who have figured out what the said buzzing noise means, I'd say, "Huzzah!" If I actually said things like that, that is.

To those of you who haven't: Robo-suit people. Can't put it much plainer than that.

I didn't have Fang's bizarre power of turning invisible, so I had to army-crawl to Ella's room. I shook her awake, though keeping a hand over her mouth—Ella was notorious for screaming at somebody if they happened to wake her before she even knew who it was.

"Ih a gguoh—Mrrrx?" was more or less what came out of her mouth.

"Shut up and listen," I said in my no-nonsense voice even Fang feared. Sorta. "There are robo-people surrounding the house. Fang is waking Iggy. Do _not_ open the curtains, stay low, and don't move. Got it?"

"Geesh, Max. But yeah, I got it," she whispered nervously. As I walked silently towards the door to the hallway, I heard her mutter, "I can see why they pay _you_ the big bucks," to my back. And, even in that impossible situation, I managed a chuckle.

This time, there wasn't going to be an Angel to save us. And, while maybe I was saved temporarily from Fang's wrath for the noodle incident, I had much bigger problems to deal with.

I opened the door a crack, my hands wrapping around its side. There weren't any windows in the hallway, but it was possible that somehow the bionic people could see my heat or magnify images and see me through the living room window, which not even my raptor vision could detect.

And then the door was blown off its hinges, the world was turned into fire and air and pain. I was hurled through the air, and while I was conditioned not to scream out loud, inside my head my only thought was, _Aaaaagh! _

I landed on my back with the "Oomph" of air being forced out of my lungs. The door pinned me down, making it impossible to move anything. My hands were caught holding it up so that I wouldn't be squished, but all I got for my efforts was an extremely painful burning feeling in them and a nasty singed smell.

But I forced myself to stay under. The robo-people had obviously meant to kill us, somehow blowing up the whole house. Some extremely powerful stuff, seeing as our house was bombproof. And, okay, from the _inside _out. But still.

I hoped Ella would have enough sense to pretend to be dead. Once the robo-people left, we could leave. But I was sure they would check for survivors, and then the survivors would survive no longer.

I heard the mass of robots buzzing away, but I suspected it was a decoy. I still felt the vibrations of a smaller squadron around us. Then half of that squadron left. I was left under my door, which was burning and soon wouldn't provide much cover, clenching my teeth against the pain in my bare hands. My thin hoodie would soon be reduced to nothing, leaving the rest of my body open for the flames too.

Finally I heard the remaining robots buzzing away. I heaved the door off of myself and gingerly picked myself up. I ran a systems check—the only thing that seemed to be harmed were my hands, with gruesome red boils and burns, seeping blood. Not a pretty sight, I can assure you, and for once I can't say that I've seen worse. As strange as it seems: I've been beaten, bruised, injected, broken, crushed, shot at, electrocuted, shackled, captured, been deprived of all of my senses, x-rayed, examined, studied, scraped, and generally injured in almost any way imaginable—but I'd never been burned. I wasn't going to be a sissy and whine about it, that was for sure. What with the whole "genetic enhancing" factor, it would probably be gone within a few days.

Next, I looked around for the remaining Flock members. Fang and Iggy were standing a couple of yards down. Ella was dusting off her pants, seemingly unharmed. The kids were at school.

And then I forced myself to look at the house. The bones had survived, only thanks to the bombproofing, which had really only been a joke on the pyros. But it was definitely uninhabitable.

"Max," Ella interrupted my musings. "You are on _fire_!"

Assuming she was complimenting me on my leadership in the whole situation, I did a little curtsy. "Well, I wouldn't really…"

I caught Fang's eye, which he was currently rolling. "No, _literally_, Max. You're on fire."

_I'm on….__?_

_FIRE!_

**CREDIT: [Song lyrics] **_**Falling In **_**by Lifehouse.**

**Part II of this little adventure coming to theatres around you this fall!**

**Well, maybe sooner if you review! **


	18. Stop, Drop, Roll, and OW!

**Author's Note:**** Here's a REALLY long chapter for you guys. Thank you SO MUCH for all of the reviews, subscriptions, favorites, and all that stuff. It just MAKES MY DAY, when somebody writes, "This is so good! I want more!" So I'm rewarding all of you faithful readers! This chapter's at least twice the length of the usual chapters, full of all the good stuff! :D Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: **

**Max—JP's**

**Fang—JP's**

**Iggy—JP's**

**Ella—JP's**

**Nudge—JP's**

**Angel—JP's**

**Gazzy—JP's**

**Dr. Martinez****—JP's**

**And Everyone Else—JP's**

**This Story Plot—MINE!**

**Author's Post-Disclaimer Note: The disclaimer looks like a cute shoe! Maybe an Ugg boot… :)**

**Well, doesn't it?**

After the whole "STOP—DROP—ROLL" thing I had to do under Fang's supervision, to extinguish the fire (take it from me, children: If you are an underage mutant with wings, or any other physical anomalies, chased and hunted by a robo-people army sent out by your own father, who is, in fact, an evil scientist who created you solely to save the world for an evil corporation that wants to take over it, killing billions of people in the process…Well, you might want to learn your safety procedures.) I had to decide on a course of action.

"I think mom's would be safe, since we don't have the chips anymore," Ella suggested.

"I know you want to see mom, Ella," I said, "I do too. But we've been there when we still had the chips. I don't want to put her in danger."

"They're not going to know we're there," she argued. "And besides, we've been at her house before. _And_, remember all of those other times you visited? Once when you had the chip, then with Fang, then after CSM, then… Nothing happened then. I don't think Jeb would hurt her."

"Yeah, I didn't think Jeb would hurt his daughter, or his son, either," I said acidly, thinking of Ari.

Fang had slowly made his way over to me while I was talking. He whispered in my ear, "Max, calm down." And you know what? All the stress just melted right away. Except for the awful throbbing in my hands. That stayed.

"You think it's safe?" I asked him quietly.

He shrugged wordlessly, but the message was clear: Your call.

I took a deep breath and answered Ella, "Okay. We'll pick the kids up, have Angel make the teachers forget they ever saw them, and fly to mom's until we can figure out where we can live. But, if the robo-people come," I leveled Ella with my gaze, "Or if _anything _happens, mom is the first priority. Got it? Agreed?"

Ella nodded, solemn for once. "Agreed."

~~~20 Minutes Later~~~

Twenty minutes later, we were hiding behind some trees in the school yard.

_ANGEL! _I screamed in my head. I didn't know exactly how long-range, or how accurate, her mental powers were, so I thought it as loudly and intensely as I could.

_Max? _her puzzled little-girl voice immediately came into my consciousness. _What are you doing here? Is this a surprise? _She caught my grim mood. _Oh, what happened!_

I didn't bother lying to her. She was going to have to find out sooner or later, and anyways, she was too old, experienced, mature, _mind reading_, to buy that kind of thing. _Robo-people blew the house up, _I summarized, sending her memories and subconsciously thinking of my hands, which were _still _burning like crap. If I didn't know better, in fact, I'd think they were still on fire.

_Oh…_ her thin voice sounded even thinner. _I liked this house. Too bad… And what happened to your hands?_

_Sorry, Ange, _I sent her, ignoring her question about my hands. _But can you get Gazzy and Nudge to "go to the bathroom"? Make the teachers forget they ever saw you. If you can make the other school kids forget, too, that'd be great. _

_I'm sorry, _I thought again.

_Okay, _she thought, her sweet voice sounding tired, resigned in a way that was _way_ beyond her years. _Nudge says that we'll be out in five. _

Periodically, she told me what the others were thinking, and I relayed it Fang and Eggy. It definitely wasn't a happy occasion, like the visit to Dr. Martinez had been.

Then three grim-looking bird kids emerged from the school. I could barely see them, in my clump of trees.

_Look straight to your right. See that __gray… Well, it's a gray car, _I thought.

_Gazzy says it's a __Lincoln, _Angel supplied. 

_Okay, whatever, _I thought. _Like, twenty feet back from it there's this clump of trees. _I saw Angel squinting in my general direction, saying something to the others. _Come this way like you know what you're doing. _

We met up, exchanged short stories, sorted through backpacks, which they'd taken this time, and decided what to keep and what wasn't needed. Angel's iPod Touch, for example: Needed. Nudge's science textbook? Not so much.

"Good thing I had some of our explosives with me," I caught Gazzy saying to Iggy.

"_Explosives_? I vividly recall telling you that explosives are _not_ allowed at school," I said.

"Off the record," Gazzy said, making his eyes wide and innocent (innocent, my foot), "They were just backup. I wasn't going to _use _them. On the record: What does 'vividly' mean?"

I gave him a look, and he said, "Fine, okay, I know what it means."

"And?" I pressed.

"I'm sorry I took explosives to school," he said with a sigh, in the "I know, I know," type of voice.

"_And_?"

"I won't do it again." From his tone, it was clear that he _would _do it again. Don't think I was fooled. Not for a minute.

One by one, we took off into the air. When I thought about it, it was hard for me to imagine that just an hour ago, I'd been dancing with Fang, happy as a teenage mutant bird-kid can be.

~~~4 Hours Later~~~

I know, I know, I'm taking a lot of shortcuts here, but I'm sure you don't want to hear me complaining about the long flight, the other complaining bird-kids, the constant pain in my hands, and how life sucks for me in general. So why waste paper, time, and words on something you'll probably just skip over anyways?

We took our time. It was a weekday, so mom would be in the office until five anyways. We landed a lot farther away from the apartment than usual, because we had time to walk the distance and because it was safer.

We landed in a state park and ended up deciding to camp out there until it was later in the afternoon. That way, the bulk of our wings under our sweatshirts might not attract as much attention.

"Ugh!" Nudge groaned, splaying out her wings in the hot Arizona mid-day sun. A lot good that did her; feathers are killer insulators, which helps in cold winters, cold nights, and cold air thirty thousand feet off the ground. It does _not_ help at all in Arizona weather. "Remind me to _never _come to Arizona at noon! My feathers feel like they're on _fire_!"

"Yeah, tell me about it," I muttered, half-heartedly fanning myself with my wings in my tree branch. My hands (you're probably getting tired of hearing this by now) were still killing me.

We were all sprawled out in our respective tree branches, a hundred or so feet off the ground in three of the taller trees in the park. Even Eggy, King and Queen of PDA, had chosen separate trees to spread out in.

"_Why_ did we not bring _water_?" Nudge complained. "I mean, we're going into Arizona, that's like the middle of the desert, well, not _really_, only parts of Arizona are desert, but still. You would've thought that you'd bring water to Arizona. Do we have any money? 'Cuz if we do, we can buy ourselves water, even though the whole point of staying up here is not to be seen, and we'd have to show ourselves to buy water, unless we found a vending machine, but they usually have security cameras, and anyways they're _way_ overpriced…" Figures. We're in a state park, burning our feathers off, and yet she still can't shut her trap for more than five seconds.

Iggy kindly put us out of our misery. "Nudge, _please_ just shut up."

I surveyed my Flock. Nudge was five branches above me, so at least I got her shadow. Angel was more-or-less on my level in a neighboring tree. Ella was a branch up on the opposite side of my tree. Fang was directly below me, three or four feet down, nearly invisible. Iggy was sharing Angel's tree, on Fang's level. Gazzy was a tree across from us, even higher than Nudge, maybe hoping for a breeze, fiddling with something ominous-looking.

Whatever. We needed all the protection we could get.

Hours ticked by. Four to five hours later, at the five-thirty-ish, six range, we hopped down and made our way to my mom's.

At eight we were there, in the blessed air-conditioning. Mom welcomed us immediately, setting up bedding and sleeping room before she even gave me a chance to explain that we didn't have a permanent house.

"You can stay here," she said, shrugging, when I finally told her.

"It's not _safe_, though," I protested. "For you, I mean."

She shook her head and smiled, but she didn't say anything. Moms. They're more stubborn than their kids sometimes, and, especially in my case, that's saying something.

Predictably, Gazzy grabbed the TV remote before Nudge could get a hold of it and turn on some girly channel. So we were watching some rerun episode that Gaz had already seen a gajillion times before, and the rest of us with him.

At one point, half way through a second episode, Fang's hand somehow brushed against my burnt palm. I couldn't hold back a hiss of pain.

Normal boys would be like, "Honey, what's wrong? Are you mad at me?" But, as I have so often pointed out, we are anything _but _normal. So Fang, instead of fuming and being all hurt and stuff (which he wouldn't have done even if he _was _normal), nailed me with a look, firmly grabbed my wrist, and flipped my hand over.

He gave me an exasperated, mad, somewhat worried look, seeing the ugly blisters and burns. Then he dragged me up, tapped my mom on the shoulder on the way out, and motioned to the kitchen with his head. Mom looked puzzled, Fang looked furious, and I'm willing to bet I looked embarrassed and guilty.

"What's going on?" my mom asked in a pretty casual tone.

_Oh, __jeez,_ I thought.

Fang wordlessly flipped my hands over so that they were facing my mom.

"Max! What happened?" Her casual tone changed to a tone that could match Fang's expression: mad and worried. "Never mind. Why didn't you say anything!" she demanded.

"I wanted to…I didn't think…I thought it…I didn't want…" All of the excuses I'd thought of before seemed childish and dumb.

"Because she's incredibly boneheaded and stupid," Fang said, in deceptively calm tones. And that pretty much summed it up.

"Max!" my mom said again. "This is a severe second-degree burn! Doesn't it hurt?" She started examining my hands.

I mutely nodded my head.

Mom sighed, but she started running cold water into a mixing bowl to treat the burns. "Fang, in the second bathroom cabinet there should be a roll of gauze. Could you bring it here?"

He nodded and left the room.

Mom plopped a couple of ice cubes into the bowl and gently submerged my hands. "Keep them there until they stop hurting, okay?"

"Yeah." Boy, did I feel stupid. I had to hold my hands in the bowl for twenty minutes before the pain subsided, but I was glad that it did. I generally could block out hurt—comes from years on the run—but the burns were unlike anything I'd ever felt before.

"Okay, it doesn't hurt anymore," I said. It wasn't _strictly_ true—there was still a dull throbbing in my palms—but I figured it was as good as I was getting.

My mom lifted my hands out of the bowl and gently patted them dry with a paper towel. "Your fingers seem all right, just your palms…" Then she started wrapping the gauze around my palm, then under my thumb and around my wrist. She gave me two layers on each hand before I was done.

Mom sighed again. "What am I going to do with you?" But she smiled. At least one person was forgiving me for my "incredible boneheaded-ness and stupidity".

I returned mom's smile and walked out the kitchen door. And would you believe who was waiting for me there?

"Fang…"

He looked at me with a resigned, worried expression. "That was really stupid of you, Max."

"I know. I'm sorry."

Fang gave me a twitch of a smile. "I can't say that it's okay, but I guess there isn't really anything I can do about it." He brushed his hand against my cheek, sending warm sparks of hope bursting in my chest. Maybe I'd be forgiven by him too… Of course I would be. I'd done many a stupid thing, and he'd gotten over all of them. And God knows how many stupid things _he'd_ done…

And then my mom walked out of the kitchen. We didn't exactly spring apart or anything, but the moment was broken.

She looked at us, a small smile on her lips, and then kept on walking, pretending she hadn't seen us. But still, whatever might have happened now wouldn't.

"Come on, let's get back to the TV," Fang said.

I followed him to my mom's living room, loosely lacing my fingers through his.

**I am in the mood to be western today, so… Howdy, faythfuhl readuh! ****How's y'all likin' my storyh? Ya know where them buhtton's at!**

**Yes, I know that is a terrible accent, even if it's just written, and…**

…**No, I am not intending to offend any of my accented readers. I love the southern accent, and I wish I had some sort of accent, but no, here I am, all boring and non-accented.**


	19. Spy Kids

**Author****'s Note: Yo! I know it's early for this notice, but November is National Novel Writing Month. I'm going to take time off my FanFics to participate in NaNoWriMo, but do not fear! December will bring more posts! And in the meantime, I'll be posting pretty regularly as well, even though school's here… Ugh. **

**Also, I KNOW the last chapter title sucked. SO.  
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**Disclaimer: I. Do. Not. Own. Maximum. Ride. I mean, that's the 19****th**** time I've said that! Get with the program, people!**

"Max! Max! Max! Wake up! We have to leave, like, RIGHT NOW!"

Um, _que_? Am I the only one missing something here?

"Max! GET UP!" another voice roared into my ear.

"Do I have to?" I groaned, blindly burying my face into some feathers. Only later would I discover that those were _Fang's _feathers.

"Yes, you have to!" a chorus of three shouted into my ear.

"And why would that be?" I asked, semi-consciously.

"We're going to an eleven o'clock showing of _Spy Kids_," Nudge yelled.

"_Eleven o'clock!_ Are you freaking _insane_?" The impact of what she'd said made me open my eyes to discover my face full of _black_ feathers. That tinted my cheeks a brilliant shade of scarlet like nothing else could.

Nudge giggled nervously. "No, at least I don't think so… Anyways, it's nine already, so we'd better get going. You should at least be awake."

I groaned once again as I picked myself off the floor. The rest of the Flock was already awake. Only Fang had somehow slept through the ruckus.

Ella apparently noticed this too. "Get your Prince Charming up and we can go."

"Go?" I yelled, ignoring the Prince Charming comment. My cheeks, on the other hand, had a different opinion and flushed again. "Are you nuts? Have you finally gone mad? What about food?" Food is _insanely _important to a mutant bird kid, especially Max the mutant bird kid.

"We'll eat at the theatre," Gazzy supplied. "Man, all that chocolate and sugar!"

Remind me again why I let these already-hyper kids even_ see _sugar?

"Money?"

"Dr. Martinez gave us some!" Angel piped up happily.

Okay, they had me. I had no reason to say _no_, other than my personal preferences, which weren't relevant to these people.

"What if you guys just went…Oh, never mind. You need supervision," I said, mainly to Eggy.

"Yeah, okay," Iggy said sarcastically, and Ella added her own, "Whatever, Max."

"Oh, before you go—hand over the money," I said, stretching out my hand. Ella gave me a look, to which I responded, "No, really, I'm completely serious. Give me the money. _All of it_." I waited until five neat little $10 bills were deposited into my bandaged palm.

"Okay, you guys leave. We'll catch up to you."

With comments varying from Iggy's "Face Time" to Nudge's "They're so cute! I hope we can get to the theatre on time, though. But what if we're too early?..." and Angel's smug smile, they jumped out the window.

I rolled my eyes and proceeded to plop my entire weight on Fang's stomach. "Get up, Prince Charming."

His eyes opened tiredly. "First of all, does the word _vegetables _mean anything to you?" he groaned, obviously referring to my weight. Before I could say "Hey!" he continued, "Second of all, get up? Why? It's the middle of the freaking night!" And before I could say, "Yeah, that's what I thought, too," he went on with, "Third of all, Prince Charming?"

I blushed to my roots. "Blame Ella."

"Ah," Fang said, as if that explained it all.

After a short silence, I said, "Well, let's get going. We have to catch up with them." I reached for his arm to pull him up, catching sight of the bandages at the last minute. I dropped my hand. "Up. Now."

"What, no food?" he asked.

"You and I are of the same mind, brother," I said, hippy-style, making "brother" sound more like "brothah".

Fang was apparently aware enough to crack a blush-worthy comment. "Well, I wouldn't say _brother_…"

I rolled my eyes at him. "C'mon. Up. Hup hup!"

"I'm going, I'm going," he said, and within the next five minutes we were out that window too.

~~~1 Hour Later~~~

This movie was the stupidest thing I would ever see.

Mainly because it was filled with action, adrenaline, suspense, and evil scientists. What else is new, right?

Well, that's what I'd gathered from the previews, at least. The movie hadn't started yet.

"Let's go to the famed _back row_," Iggy suggested to Ella, Fang, and me. I rolled my eyes mentally (nobody was facing me to see them rolling) and followed them to the back row. Nudge, Gaz, and Angel spread out through the theatre. They were old enough to take care of themselves, I figured.

Oh, and the back row thing? Apparently high school rumor had it that everyone made out in the back row of the theatre. Jeez. Cheesy theatre romance. There's that whole "guy yawns and so he puts his arm around the girl" and "OMG this movie is sooooo scary, so I need a big _man_ to hang on to!" thing.

But the movie hadn't even started yet and Eggy were already having their PDA in the back row, giggling (well, mostly Ella. I'd be _way_ concerned if I heard Iggy giggling) to each other and occasionally kissing. I concentrated on stuffing my hungry mouth with popcorn and candy.

Twenty minutes later the movie started, but theatres suck. You can't say _anything _without being "shhhhhhhhh!"-ed by everyone. So whenever I tried saying something along the lines of, "Predictable," or, "Been there, done that," or, "This is the stupidest movie I've ever seen," everyone went bonkers and shushed me. And that was the nice ones. Jeez, I say one little comment and, instead of ignoring me, the whole theatre decides to turn around and yell at me, further missing the movie! Where's the sense in that?

And then, a bit into the movie, guess what my Prince Charming decided to do?

That yawning arm thing.

I rolled my eyes at him, which he could probably pick up with his raptor vision. "Really, Fang?" I said, as under-my-breath and quietly as I could. "That's the oldest move in the book."

Fang gave me that little Mona Lisa smile he has. "Are you complaining?"

I didn't respond, but my silence said it all.

Fang smirked. "Didn't think so."

"You are the most maddening person in the world sometimes," I said, childishly making faces and sticking my tongue out at him.

"And that's why you love me," he answered.

"Sure, okay, Prince Charming. Keep telling yourself that."

We were well into our little teasing fight by the time the audience—already fed up with me, if you're following the story at all—started "shush!"-ing us.

"Let's do something quieter," Fang said with that little smile I love.

I took a deep breath and said, "I agree."

He looked a little surprised at first, maybe thought I misunderstood him or something, but my hands were already up on their way to his shoulders. His arm slid from around my shoulders to around my waist, and we kissed, right in the middle of the stupid theatre.

Stupid. That's what I am. Stupid stupid stupid. I mean, _kissing_ in the _back row _of a _movie theatre_? That's Eggy behavior, not Max behavior.

And yet I highly recommend it.

We left the theatre immediately after the movie ended. And if it hadn't been for all that candy, which we had to throw away the wrappers from, we would've gotten away…

**Oh, another cliffhanger! I just love making you guys all suspenseful. And you know how you can pass the time? There****'s a little blue button RIGHT UNDER THIS you can click….**


	20. Creepo and Camping

**Author****'s Note: Another funny, cutesy chapter, coming your way!**

**Someone told me in a review that me calling Ella and Iggy "Eggy" annoys them, so I'll try to stop. These chapters were written before I got that review, though, so if you see some, I'm sorry! :) If anything else bothers anyone, I'll try to change it!**

**Disclaimer: James Patterson owns Maximum Ride, and I don't. But I own more pencils than him, so HA!**

Just as we were about to take off, I heard a voice behind us shout, "Hey!"

I'm going to blame the stupid candy, the wrappers of which we had to throw away, which cost us time. Two seconds, but still. And who bought the candy? Well…I did, but that's because Ella gave me the money! Who did Ella get money from? My mom… But it can't be my mom's fault. If we'd eaten a normal breakfast, we wouldn't have had this problem, so, if my calculations are correct, the fault of this lies in….

Eggy.

Okay, so I'm not the next Sherlock Holmes or anything, but believe me when I tell you—we were in quite a pickle.

_We were about to take off. _Does that tell you anything? 'Cuz it tells me _plenty_.

1) We were in some secluded area, which meant…

2) Whoever was shouting after us had followed us.

3) We had our sweatshirts off, our wings extended, ready for takeoff…

4) Meaning the visitor, who was behind us, had a beautiful view of them.

Yeah. Quite the pickle. At that point I was hoping to just get out of this _alive_, seeing that the mystery guest was probably an evil scientist, since he'd bothered to run after us.

"Hey!" mystery person shouted breathlessly, jogging up to us. "Aren't you…You are! You're the famous bird-kids!"

"Uh…No?" I tried.

"Yeah, you are," he said, in a completely happy, nerdy way. It was a kid, probably in college, geeky, you know the drill. Looked like the outdoorsy fly-fishing-and-camping-in-plaid-shirts-and-vests type.

"Oh, what, these?" I asked, trying to be all nonchalant, while in my head I was going, _This crazy human is looking at my wings!_

I instinctively put myself between the Flock and the nerd. They backed away from the visitor, but Fang stayed right next to me so that his extended wings were brushing mine. Shoulder-to-shoulder.

My God, I'm in a possibly life-or-death situation and I notice Fang's wings touching mine.

"Yes! Oh, Lordy, I've been hoping to get a closer look at your wings! Such fine bone structure, of the noble build…" He trailed off in some nerd mumbo-jumbo.

I couldn't help exchanging a look with Fang. _Fine bone structure of the noble build? _WTH?

"No, no, no, you've got it all wrong." I was trying to talk my way out of this mess. "These? Oh, no, they're not wings. These are just…."

"Cardboard!" Angel jumped in helpfully. I sent her grateful thoughts as she said, her voice layered with persuasion, "All that you are looking at is cardboard."

Her voice was so convincing, for a moment I felt the need to look and make sure my wings weren't really cardboard. But I didn't, I shook myself out of it. _Some_ of us don't have as strong of minds.

"Really? These were cardboard all along?" I heard Gazzy mutter behind me. God help us.

The stranger repeated Angel, his voice droning, "All I am looking at is cardboard."

"That's right. Now I'd go back into town and forget I ever saw us," Angel instructed.

"I think I'm just going to go back into town and forget I ever saw you," the college student said in monotone.

"Good. And don't tell anyone else about anything that happened today," she finished.

"I don't think it's a good idea to tell anyone else about today." He turned around and marched out of the clearing.

"Thanks, Ange," I said.

Angel gave a wide grin. "Oh, it was fun. I haven't gotten to do that for a while now. It's nice, when you ask someone to do something, when they actually do it, you know?"

Pfft! Do I _know_? Oh, I know all right. I saw the opportunity to turn this into an educational moment and I seized it. "Glad you learned your lesson, hon. Now let's get going before some unlucky camper happens to find us."

~~~That Evening~~~

What was I doing? I was sitting.

Where was I sitting? In a tree.

_Why_ was I sitting in a tree? Because "everybody else" had decided on a "fun" campout.

So, let's get this straight. For _two freaking years_, they are on the run, eating charred desert rat and _camping _under the stars every night. Then, things finally sorta settle down, we're not on the run anymore (even though we don't really have a house and if not for my mom we _would_ be) and they decide they want to _camp_.

And do they want to do it the practical, wrap-up-and-fly-up-into-a-tree way? No, of course not! They want to do it the _normal_ way, the set-up-a-tent-in-the-state-park way.

Now, if you've been following our little adventures, you know that I am extremely paranoid. Tell me, if you are holed up, _zipped _up, in a piece of plastic known as a tent, on the ground, and evil robots decide to pop in for tea, are you going to escape fast enough to survive the encounter? No, of course you are not.

Which brings me back to me, sitting in a tree, supposedly under the excuse of "keeping watch" but really satisfying my paranoia. If something happens, I fly down there, pick up the whole freaking tent and fly in overdrive until they come to their senses and get out. Which is totally unrealistic, since I can't possibly lift a tent full of five bird kids for a foot, not to mention thirty thousand feet.

If you are paying attention, you have realized that there are seven of us bird kids and that five of us are on the ground. You may have also come to the realization that it is, of course, Fang who is in the tree with me. A fact I've been trying not to think about too much.

"I think I'm going to sleep up here. You in?" I asked.

"Anything for you, darling," Fang teased in a tone that completely didn't match his words. Which wasn't a breathy, longing tone, it was a quietly snickering one.

"You nerd." I smacked his stomach with the back of one bandaged hand.

"I think we need a new definition of that word," he said, and I immediately flashed back to that morning—well, it had been two o'clock, which, to me, was still morning!—with the weird college student kid. Well, kid who was older than me, but…

Down below, the fire was dying out. The kids were lazily getting into the tent (mom had stayed home). I spotted Ella pulling Iggy somewhere into the forest and had to resist the urge to yell at them. They could take care of themselves.

Fang put an arm around my waist. I automatically scooted closer to him on the tree branch, relaxing my wings, feeling my feathers against his.

"This is… peaceful," I said, putting my head on his shoulder. "Relaxing." I looked up to see him grinning.

"What?"

"Nothing. I've missed you."

"I've been here all along, you doof. Maybe you need your eyes checked," I said cockily.

"Shut up," Fang said quietly, but I could hear the smile in his voice. He leaned into me, his one arm tightening around my waist. His other hand brushed through my hair, getting in caught in a tangle. Of course. I brushed my fingers against his cheek, letting them travel into his hair, and our lips met.

It never gets any less… thrilling, I guess I could say. Or terrifying. I've kissed him a lot, and it never gets old. Fire exploded behind my eyes and lightning ran down my spine. And then…

"Max and Fang, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G," I heard two soft voices singing behind me. Reluctantly, I pulled back from Fang. "Excuse me for a second," I said, mock politely.

Then I turned around to where Eggy was, in the next tree over. "Several thoughts just occurred to me," I said acidly. "Would you like to hear them?"

"No way," Iggy said, at the same time as Ella said, "Sure, why not?" in a resigned tone. She knew I would voice my thoughts anyways, whether she wanted to hear them or not.

"One: You are _so _dead! Two: Do you know how WRONG that rhyme is? Three: What are you doing, spying on us anyways! Four: I can bet my wings that you two were making out in that tree, so get over yourselves! And five: As funny as it is, that rhyme actually applies to this situation. Oh, and six, of course: Scram!"

They rolled their eyes at me, made faces, protested, blah blah blah et cetera et cetera, but they hopped down from the tree (literally, tough we were about fifty feet in the air). I kept my eyes on them until they were safely in the tent.

"Now, where were we?" Fang asked.

Oh, God. That familiar sharp blush returned to my cheeks. But instead of acknowledging it, I said, "Fang, that's the second time today you used a cliché move. That's gotta stop, mister."

I could barely make out his smirk in the night. "'Cuz it bothers you so much, Max."

Truthfully, it didn't, but I wasn't telling him that. Instead, I planted my lips firmly on his.

**People! Seriously? REVIEW! If no one likes me, I WILL STOP POSTING! Not even kidding! Say SOMETHING, even if it****'s along the lines of "I hate your story". Just to let me know people are actually reading!**


	21. IMPORTANT NOTE

Note to the Readers:  
>Hey guys, I m so so SO sorry, but my usb, which had ALL of my unposted chapters (that s right-no back up, no file saved anywhere else) just randomly DIED. It won t work, it can t transfer files So for NOW I am terminating this series. My dad is going to try to take it to this guy to rewire it and see if I can get the files off, but, until then-or until I get the heart to try to rewrite everything-this series will be discontinued. I am super sorry, but please realize-I am just as heartbroken, if not more, as you guys. If you have any suggestions, please leave a review!<p>Thanks for your support! ~LLDW<p>

PS. Isn t this a funny bit of irony? I threaten not to post if you don t review and then I can t post? I swear, this is not a scam, you guys did a great job of reviewing. I am so sorry and I ll try to start posting again ASAP! 


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